Over the next three months, Ottawa Public Health is asking for input from businesses and citizens about updating the city’s smoke-free bylaws.
The Ottawa Board of Health voted unanimously in support of the consultation plan which started on Oct. 18 and will end on Jan. 20 next year. The plan includes public meetings, community and business group meetings and an online survey.
In September, city council tabled new smoking bylaw restrictions in an effort to further crack down on the dangers of second-hand smoke. If passed, smoking will be banned at public beaches, in parks and on all restaurant and bar patios as early as next spring, according to Ottawa Board of Health officials.
An Ipsos Reid Survey commissioned by Ottawa Public Health found 77 per cent of respondents are either “strongly in favour” or “in favour” of smoke-free playgrounds and parks and 73 per cent of residents are in favour of smoke free patios.
According to Neil Collishaw, research director of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, the study is proof of majority support for more controls on smoking in outdoor areas.
A series of five public meetings will take place over the next three months throughout the city, including one at city hall on Jan. 10 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Each includes a presentation on relevant health concerns, an explanation on the proposed bylaw update and an extensive public question and answer period.
The online survey includes nine short questions and will be publicly accessible online.
It asks for support or opposition of a list of spaces to become 100 per cent smoke-free, including public parks and beaches, outdoor restaurant and bar patios, grounds of municipal properties, hospital grounds and markets, fairs and festivals.
According to the survey, 100 per cent smoke-free spaces means “that all of the property is smoke-free without designated smoking areas.”
The survey also includes questions about limits on the proposed bylaw such as scaling back restrictions after 8 p.m. on outdoor restaurant and bar patios and creating designated smoking areas on public beaches.
A change of the bylaw could have a significant impact on business owners and community groups.
Two large scale consultation meetings for owners of restaurants, bar, and water-pipe establishments and other relevant businesses have been planned.
“It’s going to affect everyone at once so I don’t think it will hurt business,” says Dylan Cotroneo, manager of Pub Italia in Little Italy.
“People are still going to want to go out and have a drink and a bite to eat, with or without their cigarette.”
Over the next three months, Ottawa Public Health will look at case studies from other municipalities that have enacted similar bylaws.