Whitehorse council urged to push for vehicle smoking ban

The Canadian Cancer Society wants Whitehorse city councillors to help pressure the Yukon government to ban smoking in vehicles carrying children.

The society's Yukon chapter found both supporters, including Mayor Bev Buckway, and opponents at a council meeting Monday night.

"Vehicles are a very, very confined area," Buckway said at Monday's meeting.

"Children are the least able to speak up for themselves, so I find this to be a good legislation that will help."

Chapter president Scott Kent appeared before the council during National Non-Smoking Week armed with the results of a recent poll that found a majority of Canadians are in favour of a smoking ban in vehicles if children younger than 18 are inside.

"We found that 82 per cent of Canadians support the ban, and 69 per cent of smokers also support that ban," Kent said of the results, which were released last week.

In December 2007, Nova Scotia became the first and only province to date to ban smoking in vehicles.

As the Yukon government is currently drafting territory-wide anti-smoking laws, Kent said such legislation should include a ban on smoking in vehicles.

To that end, he asked the city — which already has its own ban on smoking in public places — to use its political weight to lean on territorial legislators.

But Coun. Doug Graham told Kent he cannot support the erosion of civil liberties in private vehicles.

"How long is it going to take us now to introduce legislation that says you can't smoke in your house if there's a minor present there, too? I think at some point we have to allow common sense," Graham said.

An all-party committee of MLAs looking into a smoking ban released its report in November, calling for smoking to be prohibited in all public places, including bars, stores and beer tents at special events. But the MLAs' report did not include a ban on smoking inside vehicles.

If such a ban does not make it into the final legislation, Kent said opposition politicians have promised to fight for an amendment to make sure it does.