Halifax council voted Tuesday to ban smoking at outdoor recreation
facilities where children tend to congregate, including ball fields,
beaches, pools and skateboard parks. Violators face a potential $500
fine.
The ban will be implemented in about two months, as signs
designating the smoke-free areas are posted, and a “social marketing”
campaign informing residents of the ban will be rolled out over the
next two to four years. All told, the ban will cost between $100,000
and $200,000, said city staffer Peter Bigelow.
Despite some concerns—councillor David Hendsbee considered the ban
“heavy-handed” and councillor Jerry Blumenthal worried that blind
smokers wouldn’t see the new signs—council voted unanimously in
favour of the ban.
This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2009.
soon i wont be able to smoke on the sidewalk while i walk to work
This is pathetic. We cut down trees and widen streets so that more and more cars can flood into the city and poison the air and water and earth, and we ban smoking here and there and feel self-righteous about our concern for the health of our children. I really hope that there is in fact a Hell for people who can cast both votes.
Why can’t people stop complaining enough is enough .As it is smokers go outside there is no way that can harm anyone other than putting the smokers in danger…people going outside at night because it’s the only place left, now you want them to walk away from the buildings where more danger lurks.Somewhere all you none smokers have to admit you won and leave as smokers alone.
I’m not even a smoker and I think this has gone way too far. Just because you smell someone’s smoke outside does not mean you are going to get lung cancer. Get real people!
Agreed. This is getting ridiculous, and I’ve never smoked a day in my life.
This is ridiculous, imagine the day all smokers stop smoking because it is banned from everywhere : were is the government going to get the tobacco tax money from ?
Well with a new tax on something non smokers buy !!
Ultimately, we smokers willingly pay for an extra tax the others don’t need to. So back off and give us a little more space.
By the way I would like to see the figures on how outdoor’s secondary smoke affects people the way it does in an enclosed room !
If they are soo dead set on people not smoking then they should just stop selling them. This has gone too far and the fact that the city can post signs everywhere, about what grass is okay to sit on and where you can and can’t smoke yet they cannot seem to work out how to place a bike lane EVERYWHERE in the city. They can widen the roads for the cars and put a sewage plant in the middle of down town, place camera’s everywhere that violence “could” happen yet still no real steps in the city showing a productive and modern side. There have to be better ways to approach what the city really needs! I love Halifax and it has soo much potential and the council is wasting it’s time on things the city doesn’t need.
The is awesome! I wouldn’t care if smokers would pick up their butts…but they do not…..so fuck them.
Lets ban all the pollution from the US Eastern Seaboard coal generating plants and industry too. Lets ban global warming in NS. Lets ban fucking everything that 1 person finds offensive. Fucking unenforceable bullshit that these clowns spend money on is ridiculous. This province is “ban-happy” and they’re really fucking pushing it with peoples’ rights here. Why don’t we just say fuck it and put in a communist government too, then they can decide my every movement.
Can’t drink in public outside of licensed areas, so why smoking? Oh poor babies, hooked through the bag.
How much would it cost without the “social marketing” campaign? Sounds like council is unanimously wasting our money!