Will increased fines during fire season stop people from smoking in Port Coquitlam parks?
That’s the aim of several proposed changes to PoCo’s smoking bylaw that would increase fines from $250 to $500 for smoking in parks between June 1 and Sept. 30.
The bylaw — which still needs council’s approval — would also make it illegal to drop burning butts on the ground or flick cigarette butts out of a moving vehicle.
On Tuesday (June 20), Port Coquitlam’s council-in-committee discussed the changes as a way to prevent fires from starting in the city’s forested environment.
Dominic Long, the city’s director of community safety and corporate services, said the fines should act as a “deterrent” although he acknowledged that bylaw officers typically try education first.
To be fined, someone usually has to have a repeat offence, he said.
The question of enforcement came up multiple times with some councillors wondering if enough was being done now to stop people from smoking in parks and public places.
Coun. Dean Washington asked whether tougher smoking rules enacted in 2018 made any difference to public behaviour.
“I don’t see a massive change in smoking in public,” he said, noting that people still smoke around some businesses and in Lions Park.
Long said that compliance has improved but some people have not been obeying the bylaw in Lions Park, for example, and they have been banned from the park.
Coun. Steve Darling asked what’s to stop someone from lighting up the minute a bylaw officer leaves the area.
Long said someone who ignorse the warning could get a violation ticket after a repeat offence.
“But [bylaw officers] do make trips around Lions Park and Gates Park where we do kind of encourage the most compliance due to the activities that take place in those parks,” Long said.
Coun. Nancy McCurrach wondered whether the June 1 date is too late in the season, with a warmer summer projected and following a dry early spring.
McCurrach — who said she worked phones to provide help to displaced people during the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire — pointed out that blaze started May 1.
“It might be something to think about with global warming,” she suggested.
Coun. Glenn Pollock suggested the city work with other local jurisdictions in aligning the bylaw and he promised to bring up the issue in future joint meetings.
Coquitlam also raises fines for smoking in parks in summer months.
Here's what Port Coquitlam's proposed bylaw would do:
- Raise fines from $250 to $500 for smoking in parks from June 1 to Sept. 30
- Add a citation against mishandling a burning substance or any part of a cigarette, cigar, or pipe, whether the substance is burning or not
- Require a smoker to extinguish the burning substance, where practicable
- Make the owner of the vehicle responsible for the contravention
