Okotoks residents speak out on proposed smoking ban

Okotoks town council gave residents an opportunity to weigh in on a proposed bylaw that would make the municipality the first in Alberta to ban smoking in cars carrying children.

Only about a dozen people attended the public meeting Monday night in the bedroom community 45 kilometres south of Calgary, but they held strong opinions on the ban, which would impose fines on anyone caught smoking in a vehicle with children younger than 16.

Barney Kenney, a father of four grown children, said town council shouldn't be interfering with what people do in their private lives.

'They're invading people's own privacy and they should just leave it alone.' —Robin Peters, Okotoks resident

"If they're going to smoke with their kids in the car, they're going to smoke with their kids in the car whether or not this bylaw's in place. The whole thing is a joke," said the non-smoker.

"Okotoks already has a number of bylaws that they don't enforce. There's a bylaw against parking recreational vehicles on the street. … [but] just drive around, you'll find hundreds of recreational vehicles parked on the street. What's the point of passing a bylaw if they're not going to enforce it?"

Donna Rinehart brought a petition in favour of the ban to the meeting.

"When I was going around Okotoks with this, there … [were] very few people who didn't want to sign it."

Opinions split on whether bylaw is necessary

On the town's main street, Robin Peters, out on an evening walk with his 14-month-old son, says where he smokes is none of council's business.

"I don't smoke in the house. I smoke out on the deck if I want to go out at night for a cigarette," he said. "They're invading people's own privacy, and they should just leave it alone," he told CBC News.

Fellow resident Heather MacIntyre, who was walking with her baby girl on the other side of the street, says her husband smokes but not in the house or the car.

"It's the adult's choice to smoke; it's not the child's choice to smoke," she said.

It's now up to Okotoks council to mull over what it heard at Monday's public meeting. Aldermen in favour of the bylaw say they hope it passes by September.

Earlier this month, Ontario became the third province, along with Nova Scotia and British Columbia, to pass a law banning smoking in a vehicle with a child present.