Yukon to table report on proposed smoking ban

The Yukon government is expected to announce details Wednesday of its proposed territory-wide smoking ban.

An all-party committee led by Health Minister Brad Cathers has agreed unanimously on a report with recommendations for the proposed ban. Cathers is expected to table that report in the legislature onWednesday.

"It will be up to the legislative assembly — including, of course, the government, with the majority of seats in the house — to determine how to move forward on that," Cathers said Tuesday.

The committee's report is the product of a month of public hearings in Yukon communities earlier in the fall. The committee spent more than $30,000 on the hearings, many of which were poorly attended.

The process started in the spring, when NDP Leader Todd Hardy introduced a private member's bill that would impose a smoking ban. It passed second reading, but then Cathers said he wantedto get public input.

Now that the all-party committee has made its recommendations, legislators will decide what changes, if any, to make to the bill before the third and final reading.

The Yukon is the only territory or province in Canada left without anti-smoking legislation, but the Canadian Cancer Society hopes the new legislation will vault the Yukon from last to first place, with the toughest smoking ban in the country.

Scott Kent, the society's regional manager, said the society put forward 12 recommendations to the committee.

"Some of the bigger ones are to prohibit visible tobacco displays and signs, and something that I'm hoping for is a prohibition on smoking in vehicles carrying children," he said.

Earlier in the week, the Nova Scotia town of Wolfville became the first municipality in the country to ban smoking in vehicles when a child is present.