City policy to vaporize e-cigarette use

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This article was published 23/02/2015 (3348 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What are they smoking in Steinbach these days? One less thing, at least at city facilities, thanks to Steinbach city council.

At a council committee meeting on Tuesday night it was agreed that e-cigarette usage should be addressed.

“A cigarette is a cigarette,” said councillor John Fehr as he weighed in on plans for the city to place restrictions on the use of e-cigarettes.

As city manager Troy Warkentin explained, the issue is not quite as simple as that. Warkentin reported to city council on Tuesday night, following up on a request from councillor Susan Penner who had asked administration to explore what steps the city could undertake to respond to the growing use of e-cigarettes.

Warkentin advised that current provincial law defines smoking as it relates to tobacco products. Since e-cigarettes aren’t a tobacco product (the battery-operated devices convert liquid nicotine into a mist form), Warkentin said it would be difficult for a council to amend its current bylaw to address e-cigarettes as well. Provincial officers currently enforce smoking-related infractions. A by-law that fell outside of the provincial definition would fall on the city’s shoulders to enforce, Warkentin mused.

Instead, Warkentin suggested a policy, rather than a by-law, be endorsed by council to prohibit e-cigarette use in any building owned or leased by the city or within 50 ft. of any such building.

The city’s parks and recreation department already enforces such a rule at the T.G. Smith Centre.

“From the nuisance side that’s obviously a concern but also health,” said Penner, “They haven’t been around long enough to come up with conclusive evidence. When cigarettes were first introduced there was no evidence either of them being harmful. So, I would like to err on the side of caution with this one.”

Councillor Michael Zwaagstra requested city administration provide further information on the option of creating a city by-law to expand the restrictions further, though he suggested that might not be necessary.

“It’s also possible that, just by having this discussion and getting it out there, that could be encouragement to establishments to do what many have already done already and say we are not going to have these in our facilities. If private business decide to do that on their own then there’s less of a need for us to act on that,” he said.