Ontario to ban smoking on restaurant patios, sports fields

Smokers in Ontario will have to butt out in more places including bar and restaurant patios, near playgrounds, sports fields and ice rinks starting January 1.

The changes announced Friday are intended to end what Associate Health Minister Dipika Damerla called a patchwork of municipal bans across the province and will also ban sales of tobacco on college and university campuses in a bid to curb smoking by impressionable young adults.

The timing of the ban will give restaurants, bars and their patrons who like to light up on patios time to get used to the idea before the outdoor dining and drinking season resumes in the spring.

It makes sense to do it now, Damerla told reporters as children played around her in the playground of a downtown daycare centre.

The restaurant industry said it had no warning of the patio ban and was not consulted but is not surprised it is taking effect in less than two months.

We realized society is going this way . . . well deal with it, said spokesman James Rilette of Restaurants Canada.

We think it can work as long as they dont get too heavy-handed in the early days, he added, referring to tickets that municipal inspectors who enforce the Smoke-Free Ontario Act could hand out to lawbreakers.

The new measures, part of regulatory changes to the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, will also ban smoking on playgrounds, public sports fields and similar surfaces such as ice rinks.

As well, it will be illegal to smoke within 20 metres of them to keep children and athletes clear of second-hand smoke.

Theres no such luck for patio diners, who will not enjoy a similar 20-metre exclusion zone, Damerla acknowledged. Nor will the province ban smoking in local parks as some municipalities have done.

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Ontario to ban smoking on restaurant patios, sports fields