The new Beaver Barracks housing complex is taking the lead in the push for non-smoking multi-unit housing after it was announced earlier this year that all of the buildings and common grounds will be smoke-free.
The affordable housing complex is now under construction on the northwest block of Catherine and Metcalfe streets.
Pippa Beck, a policy analyst for the Non-Smokers’ Rights Association, says the region of Waterloo was the first big player in Ontario to start converting social housing buildings into smoke-free residences.
“When Waterloo did it, that really made a lot of other social housing providers sit up and take notice,” says Beck.
The Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corp. has taken notice and established itself as leader in the movement for smoke-free housing by designating Beaver Barracks as 100 per cent non-smoking.
The issue of second-hand smoke in multi-unit buildings gained attention recently after it was highlighted in a report by the Ontario Tobacco Strategy Advisory Group.
The report recommends amending the Residential Tenancies Act to make a non-smoking policy a material clause in the act which would make enforcement easier, says Beck.
The Ontario government rejected the report’s recommendations and Health Promotion Minister Margarett Best said the government is not ready to create harsher non-smoking laws at the moment.
However, currently it is not illegal for landlords to put a no-smoking policy in a lease, says Beck.
“The act itself is silent on smoking but it doesn’t mean (landlords) can’t bring in additional obligations or requirements of tenants,” Beck explains.
Centretown resident Floralove Katz says she has petitioned the board of directors in her building for 18 months to try to ensure the second-hand smoke from smoking tenants is contained within their own units.
“I choose to live in a condo but I choose not to be poisoned by my neighbours,” says Katz.
Meg McCallum, membership and communications co-ordinator for the Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corp., says it is difficult to introduce tougher non-smoking policies in existing multi-unit buildings because it is illegal to change the terms of a tenants lease without their consent.
McCallum says this is one of the reasons why the CCOC made the new Beaver complex smoke-free instead of trying to change policy in its existing buildings.
“It is easier from a management perspective to start everybody off with the same behavioural expectations,” explains McCallum. “They’ve all agreed to it, they’ve all signed it into their leases, so it sets a new standard for that building.”
Beck says the non-smoking policy at Beaver Barracks is significant because it extends to all the individual units and outside the building to the common grounds.
Lise Vezina is scheduled to move into Beaver Barracks at the beginning of next year.
She says after living with second-hand smoke from the neighbouring units in her apartment building for 13 years, she can’t wait to be in an environment that is smoke-free.
“It’s beautiful but I don’t care that (Beaver Barracks) is brand new,” says Vezina. “I just care that there’s no smoking.”
Vezina says she spoke to a representative from Beaver Barracks to find out more about their non-smoking policy.
“They can’t deny a smoker . . . but they have to abide by the rules and sign that they will not smoke in their apartment,” says Vezina.
If a tenant breaks the non-smoking policy they can’t simply be evicted but Vezina says she was assured the CCOC will do everything they can to prevent smoking in the complex.
Katz says without a tougher non-smoking policy in her building, she is stuck in the position of trying to be a good neighbour and wanting to speak out about the intrusion of second-hand smoke on her daily life.
“You don’t want the toxins and you don’t want your neighbours to hate you,” says Katz. “People, who were quite friendly to me before, ignore me when we run into each other in the mail room.”
The first leases for Beaver Barracks have been signed and McCallum says there haven’t been any problems with the non-smoking policy so far.
The housing corporation will review the policy in 2013, says McCallum.
“We’ll get to see how it plays out on the ground and we’ll see how difficult it is for us as a landlord to manage that part of the lease.”