THUNDER BAY – Fifteen years after Thunder Bay enacted its smoking bylaw and outlawed the habit in bars and restaurants, a leading anti-tobacco expert says the city needs to do more in order to drastically lower the region’s smoking rate.
Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society, said while the Canadian smoking rate currently stands at 16 per cent, Thunder Bay sits at 23 per cent and Northwestern Ontario as a whole is a point higher at 24 per cent.
The goal of the federal government is to slash the national rate to five per cent by 2035.
Cunningham, who delivered his message on Wednesday to a room full of health-care professionals at the Valhalla Inn, said the 2003 Thunder Bay bylaw was revolutionary in Ontario, the first to cut smoking from eating and drinking establishments, but it just doesn’t go far enough.
“Thunder Bay is behind some other municipalities in a couple of areas, in terms of outdoor smoking bylaws, which should include e-cigarettes, which should include cannabis, which should include other outdoor areas in terms of all local parks and a greater distance from doors, a total of nine metres instead of three,” Cunningham said.
Another suggestion he’s made is having the city charge tobacco retailers in Thunder Bay an annual fee, similar to those collected in other Ontario municipalities, for the right to sell tobacco products.
Ottawa, at the high end, imposes an $893 tax annually, while Cornwall, at the low end asks for $40. Sudbury charges $150.
“Thunder Bay has not required tobacco retailers to have a licence. If it was the same fee as Ottawa, over $800 a year, the health unit and the municipality could raise almost $100,000 a year, which could fund better sales-to-minors enforcement,” Cunningham said.
He’d also like to see both Confederation College and Lakehead University follow suit with at least 80 post-secondary institutions in the country and implement a total smoking ban on campus. Both schools at present have designated smoking areas.
Dan DePeuter, the co-ordinator for the Northwest Tobacco Control Unit, said it’s long been known smoking rates are higher in Thunder Bay, which he blames on part on geography.
It’s also a bit of complacency, he said.
“We want people to know that tobacco isn’t an issue that’s done,” DePeuter said. “It’s still a leading cause of preventable death in Canada and across the world and we want to give people some of the resources that they can help people that come to see them and really help them improve the health outcomes of their clients and patients.”
A five per cent smoking rate may or may not be realistic in Northwestern Ontario, but it can’t hurt to try, he said.
One way health-care professionals can help is to not assume smokers don’t want to quit.
Sometimes simply asking the question can start the ball rolling.
“You may be the only health and wellness care provider that person sees, and if you don’t ask them if they’d like help quitting, who else is going to ask them?” DePeuter said.
“I think a lot of people will be surprised that people in these situations will want to quit just as much as anybody else does.”
Cunningham admitted it may take time to get to a time when there are more smoke-free outdoor areas in the city, including vaping and cannabis, but encouraged local officials to surpass the standards set by the province.
“It takes working with a lot of different stakeholders to get there.”
