Smokers and vapers will be subject to slightly tougher restrictions on where they can light up in Prince George starting next spring.
City council gave three readings Monday to a bylaw that will prohibit lighting up within six metres of a bus stop, bar or restaurant patio, food truck or tent, or drive-thru that serves food, and within 25 metres of any outdoor sports field or playground.
The bylaw also duplicates provincial legislation that bans the practice from transit shelters, hospital or health clinic, places of public assembly, vehicles for hire and within six metres of doorways, windows or air intakes.
A nine-metre bubble was considered at the outset of the consultation and drafting process.
That council didn't stay with nine metres drew a measure of disappointment from Northern Health tobacco reduction lead Nancy Viney during a hearing on Monday.
"I would have liked to see nine metres, but six is better than three," Viney said. "Nine metres is what the evidence is showing [for effectiveness]."
In answer to a question from Coun. Garth Frizzell about what the barriers would be to increasing the area to nine metres, bylaw services manager Fred Crittendon said it would be troublesome in some parts of the city.
"Especially in the downtown area, the nine metres would really push smokers right off everywhere that they can [smoke]," Crittendon said.
"Now, we do have some small mom and pop operations where they want a person working and they can just kind of step outside the door to have a cigarette."
Six metres is currently the standard around the province, Crittendon added.
Including vaping in the bylaw won approval from Northern Health medical health officer Andrew Gray.
"These are new products that are unregulated, we don't know what their health impacts are," Gray told council. "They may eventually prove to be effective harm reduction measures for people who are already smokers but that doesn't mean they're safe.
"We do know that nicotine is addictive and we do know that the chemicals that are in e-cigarettes (are dangerous). It's not just water, these are chemicals that do have harms."
The measure will help protect people from second-hand smoke and lessen the influence the sight of smokers and vapors will have on youth, predicted Viney, who noted the rate of smoking on northern B.C. is double that for the province with a concurrent higher rate of chronic disease.
"We don't want to demonize smokers but we really want to support them to have a positive environment, to support them to avoid smoking too," Viney said. "Seventy per cent of people do want to quit and bylaws like this help people quit."
Viney dismissed as myth the thought that smoking outside causes no one else harm.
"When you're outside, depending on the wind, depending on the proximity, smoke levels can rise to the same levels of concentration as indoor spaces, so it's really important to get the word out," Viney said.
A nurse for close to 40 years, Viney said there has not been a place where she's worked where she has "not seen the devastating effect of tobacco."
"When I see the people that are smoking today, in lots of cases it's the people that can least afford it. It's a very addictive drug and we need to move upstream, we need to help our people be healthy," Viney said.
"We're Northern Health, we're not Northern Disease and we want to see a healthy environment."
The bylaw will work on a complaint-driven basis with fines ranging from at least $100 up to $2,000. It will come into effect in May following a public education campaign and once the 465 signs required to notify smokers of the bylaw have been installed on city property. The total budget for that work is $68,400.
Business owners and operators will be responsible for their own signage to meet the bylaw's requirements.
Currently, the city's playgrounds and skateboard parks are designated as tobacco-free zones but there are not penalties to back that up.
