Watch above: Saskatoon’s city planning committee will discuss smoking in public outdoor areas on Monday. Aaron Streck reports.
SASKATOON – “We have a really good no smoking policy currently in place,” said Cary Humphrey, the City of Saskatoon’s recreation and sport director.
There’s a list of where you can and can’t smoke in Saskatoon. Right now residents can light up in parks and playgrounds, something that doesn’t sit well with some.
Since Jan. 1, public outdoor spaces have been smoke free in both Martensville and Warman, the first two cities in the province, but it’s not looking like Saskatoon will be the third.
“Martensville has eight parks and we have 250 parks and also if its been reported correctly to me it was $5,000 to put signs in eight parks, there’s some quick math there that says just to properly signage is quite a cost and I think it would be well over $100,000,” said Humphrey.
READ MORE: Smoking 2.0 – is vaping the new smoking?
The city’s planning committee will discuss smoking in public outdoor areas on Monday.
In a recent Canadian Cancer Society public opinion poll, 91 per cent of people living in Saskatchewan support smoke free playgrounds and 81 per cent support smoke free sports fields.
“The city is halfway there as far as outdoor smoke free spaces, we already have patios which they were ground breaking and leaders a decade ago and getting smoke free patios, we already have smoke free spaces around the outdoor pools and we already have seating areas in sports fields, so we’re so close,” said Jennifer Miller with the Saskatchewan Lung Association.
The city’s planning committee will also take a look at pushing smokers further away from the Shaw Centre to prevent people from smoking in front of the leisure facility, as it is in between two high schools.
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