P.E.I. to expand smoking restrictions

Provincial smoking bans will expand to new areas, says P.E.I.'s health minister, but the government will hold a series of public consultations first.

The plans are to ban designated smoking rooms, smoking on hospital grounds and smoking in cars with kids.

P.E.I. was the first to institute provincewide smoking bans in 2003, but the Canadian Cancer Society says it has since fallen behind. For example, it's one of the only provinces to still allow smoking on the grounds of hospitals and in designated smoking rooms, which have been built in some bars and restaurants.

"We're pleased that the provincial government is taking the steps as soon as possible to make these eliminations and put P.E.I. back at the head of the pack on tobacco legislation," Dawn Binns, executive director of the P.E.I. branch of the Canadian Cancer Society, told CBC News last week.

But Health Minister Doug Currie said the changes will probably not come in the spring sitting of the legislature. Currie said there needs to be public consultation before legislation.

"Is it going to change our minds, going out to public consultations about what we already know? Certainly no, it's not," he said.

"But I think that we have to listen to Islanders, and we have to be respectful of that."

Binns hopes the consultations will not interfere with the province's commitment to extend the smoking bans. The society is continuing to lobby for further restrictions, including bans on smoking on outdoor patios of restaurants and in parks and playgrounds.