Nunavik smokers face tougher new provincial restrictions

Thinking of lighting up? New Quebec restrictions on smoking came into effect May 26. (FILE PHOTO)

Quebec is clamping down further on smoking through a new set of regulations attached to its Tobacco Act that came into effect May 26.

Now, if you want to smoke cigarettes in Nunavik or in southern Quebec, you will no longer be able to smoke in places such as playgrounds or in a vehicle in the presence of children under 16 years of age.

These new restrictions come after a progressive set of rules that have limited smoking in public places and the sale of cigarettes.

“Our priority is to intensify the fight against smoking, and this in order to save lives and preserve the health of people who suffer the effects of secondhand smoke, especially young people. We must remember that more than 10,000 people die each year from smoking-related illness. Together we can make a difference and work for the well-being of present and future generations,” said Lucie Charlebois, Quebec’s minister for Rehabilitation, Youth Protection and Public Health, in a recent Quebec government release.

As of May 26 in Quebec, it is now forbidden to smoke:

• in motor vehicles in the presence of youth under 16;

• in the common areas of apartment buildings of two to five dwellings;

• on commercial terraces;

• in children’s outdoor playgrounds;

• on sports fields;

• outside in the yards of childcares, pre-schools and schools; and,

• in the yards of vocational training centres.

The revision of the Tobacco Act first took place in 2005 under the current Prime Minister Philippe Couillard, who said it’s been a great success since it has led to significant changes in the habits and attitudes of people in Quebec.

Retailers throughout Quebec started charging higher cigarette taxes in 2012.

The 2004 Qanuippitaa health survey on Inuit health in Nunavik revealed that more than seven in 10 Nunavimmiut were smokers.

And more than half — 58 per cent — of Inuit in Nunavik aged 15 years and up smoke daily, Statistics Canada reported in 2006, with 15 as the average age when Inuit start smoking.