By Geneviève April
www.thesuburban.com
Laval city council voted down a bid by Fabreville independent Councillor Michel Trottier to ban smoking near arenas, during its meeting, Feb. 3.
“Mayor Demers explained that his political party was already developing a resolution of its own that would go even further and be more thorough, so the other councillors voted against my motion” said Trottier in an interview with The Suburban.
Trottier said that he was prompted by a citizen who complained after having to run a gauntlet of smokers who had congregated for a nicotine break outside a Laval arena. He likened his proposal to the ban on smoking already in effect in proximity of hospitals and schools.
“Laval officials are already considering the situation and an assessment is ongoing,” said Laval spokeswoman Nadine Lussier. “They are considering banning smoking around all Laval public buildings and sports facilities. We have to plan to relocate ashtrays, paint signs on the pavement and post notices to advise people once the new rules are in effect.”
Though the timeframe and start date remain unknown, Lussier confirmed that the project “has been fast-tracked and the situation is high on Mayor Demers’ priority list.
“My resolution would have been quick and easy to implement and could already have been in effect,” added Trottier. “It would have remedied the situation in arenas and would not have prevented Mayor Demers’ from introducing his own resolution at a later date.”
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i[‘GoogleAnalyticsObject’]=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,’script’,’//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js’,’ga’);
ga(‘create’, ‘UA-45892555-1’, ‘robertfrankmedia.blogspot.com’);
ga(‘send’, ‘pageview’);
