One of Canada’s last smoker strongholds enacts tough non-smoking law
The province that has been called Canada’s designated smoking section has enacted some of the toughest smoking legislation in the country.
On May 31 Quebec’s Bill 112 came into effect, prohibiting smoking in all public spaces, including private clubs, bingo halls, casinos, bars and restaurants.
While the province already had a smoking law on the books (la Loi sur le tabac), the new bill is an amendment that includes stricter regulations and penalties.
“Most public spaces were already smoke-free. However, for example, if you had a small shop, there was a certain tolerance by some employers that the ban not be respected,” said Natalie Bussière, an employment lawyer with Blake, Cassels and Graydon LLP in Montreal. “But now you strictly have a ban on the use of tobacco products. Basically you cannot smoke within a working environment.”
Smoking isn’t allowed in taxis or company cars either. Neither can employees smoke in their own vehicle if it’s being used for business purposes and there is one other employee in the vehicle — even if both are smokers. “I don’t know how this will be applied in real life though,” said Bussière.
The legislation also prohibits smokers from lighting up within nine meters of a health or social services institution, college, university or child-care facility doorway or the doorway of any facility that caters to minors.
But the question for employers becomes, “What exactly is a facility that caters to minors?”
“For example, movie theatres, we could ask ‘Does that fall within the definition of an establishment targeting minors?’ It remains to be seen,” said Bussière.
Unlike Ontario’s new smoking law, the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, employees and patrons can smoke in a restaurant’s or bar’s covered patio. Owners can also erect an outdoor shed, municipal laws permitting, where patrons can smoke but not eat or drink.
Employers, except those that work with minors, can build a ventilated smoking room for employees. However, these rooms can only be used until May 30, 2008, and employers aren’t legally obligated to provide such a room. Nor are they likely to bother with the expense, said Bussière.
Employers that don’t comply with the legislation face a minimum fine of $400 for a first offence and up to $10,000 for a repeat offence. Individual smokers can also face a minimum fine of $50 for a first offence and up to $500 for a repeat offence.
The government has 75 new inspectors, many of them undercover agents, who will do spot-checks across the province. As soon as the law came into effect, the inspectors were set to target 6,000 of the province’s 8,000 restaurants and bars because that’s where most of the resistance to the law is expected, said Bussière.
About 650 bar and restaurant owners have said they will refuse to enforce the smoking ban. The Quebec health department said these establishments would be among the first targeted by the inspectors.
It might take some time for people to get used to the new regulations, but Bussière doesn’t think it will stop them from going to restaurants or bars.
“(People) used to smoke in movie theatres,” said Bussière. “There was a time when that was the way things were done. I think people will simply adapt.”
On May 31 Quebec’s Bill 112 came into effect, prohibiting smoking in all public spaces, including private clubs, bingo halls, casinos, bars and restaurants.
While the province already had a smoking law on the books (la Loi sur le tabac), the new bill is an amendment that includes stricter regulations and penalties.
“Most public spaces were already smoke-free. However, for example, if you had a small shop, there was a certain tolerance by some employers that the ban not be respected,” said Natalie Bussière, an employment lawyer with Blake, Cassels and Graydon LLP in Montreal. “But now you strictly have a ban on the use of tobacco products. Basically you cannot smoke within a working environment.”
Smoking isn’t allowed in taxis or company cars either. Neither can employees smoke in their own vehicle if it’s being used for business purposes and there is one other employee in the vehicle — even if both are smokers. “I don’t know how this will be applied in real life though,” said Bussière.
The legislation also prohibits smokers from lighting up within nine meters of a health or social services institution, college, university or child-care facility doorway or the doorway of any facility that caters to minors.
But the question for employers becomes, “What exactly is a facility that caters to minors?”
“For example, movie theatres, we could ask ‘Does that fall within the definition of an establishment targeting minors?’ It remains to be seen,” said Bussière.
Unlike Ontario’s new smoking law, the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, employees and patrons can smoke in a restaurant’s or bar’s covered patio. Owners can also erect an outdoor shed, municipal laws permitting, where patrons can smoke but not eat or drink.
Employers, except those that work with minors, can build a ventilated smoking room for employees. However, these rooms can only be used until May 30, 2008, and employers aren’t legally obligated to provide such a room. Nor are they likely to bother with the expense, said Bussière.
Employers that don’t comply with the legislation face a minimum fine of $400 for a first offence and up to $10,000 for a repeat offence. Individual smokers can also face a minimum fine of $50 for a first offence and up to $500 for a repeat offence.
The government has 75 new inspectors, many of them undercover agents, who will do spot-checks across the province. As soon as the law came into effect, the inspectors were set to target 6,000 of the province’s 8,000 restaurants and bars because that’s where most of the resistance to the law is expected, said Bussière.
About 650 bar and restaurant owners have said they will refuse to enforce the smoking ban. The Quebec health department said these establishments would be among the first targeted by the inspectors.
It might take some time for people to get used to the new regulations, but Bussière doesn’t think it will stop them from going to restaurants or bars.
“(People) used to smoke in movie theatres,” said Bussière. “There was a time when that was the way things were done. I think people will simply adapt.”
