Another big Saskatchewan apartment owner bans cannabis smoking for renters

Another big apartment rental company in Saskatchewan says it will not allow its tenants to smoke cannabis in their units, despite impending legalization on Oct. 17.

Boardwalk Properties confirmed the Canada-wide change on Tuesday afternoon. The company owns about 2,000 units in Saskatoon and another 2,500 in Regina.

"One [reason] is the safety of our associates and of our resident members," said Boardwalk spokesperson David McIlveen.

"The second is the reasonable enjoyment of their homes for our resident members."

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Cultivating marijuana plants will not be allowed either.

"Those properties were never really designed for cultivation," said McIlveen.

Cigarette smoking OK

The ban doesn't apply to cigarette smoking on Boardwalk properties.

"That's an existing thing that's always been a part of their leases so we can't unilaterally change that even if we did want to," said McIlveen.

Boardwalk is the second big Saskatchewan renter to announce such a ban. Mainstreet Equity Corp., which owns more than 11,000 units in western Canada, announced its ban in July.

• Renter with more than 11,000 units to ban all smoking, pot or not, for all apartments and patios this fall