Sidney’s town council has directed staff to look into the steps that would be involved in banning smoking or vaping in the municipality’s downtown core.
Interest in making downtown Sidney smoke-free was sparked by loopholes in the CRD Clean Air Bylaw that allowed smoking in certain large sections of downtown, including during events like the Sidney Street Market.
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In the absence of cigarette disposal containers, the township has received requests to explore ways of managing cigarette butt disposal and, other than installing receptacles similar to those in Victoria, they are also exploring the option of banning smoking altogether.
The option of installing cigarette receptacles would require staff to determine which areas are legal smoking locations, which type of canister to install, and where to recycle the material.
They would also need to figure out the volume of cigarette butts collected at each disposal canister in Sidney, and the upkeep on the receptacles would result in ongoing maintenance costs.
Another idea would be to require event organizers, who request Beacon Ave to be closed to traffic for their events, to ban smoking at said events.
The final proposal is to abolish smoking or vaping in the downtown core entirely with the imposition of a new bylaw and signage.
This ban could be enforced using a model similar to that employed by the CRD which employs the following steps:
- targeted education and awareness
- sufficient and proper signage
- voluntary compliance and self-enforcement
- ticketing in specific situations
Enforcement of the bylaw would primarily need to rely on voluntary compliance and self-enforcement due to strained resources for bylaw enforcement staff.
A report submitted by the township’s Director of Engineering states that there is no policy or guideline preventing the Town from creating a bylaw that makes the downtown core smoke-free.
