Board of Health goes beyond councillor’s initial request in recommending 24-hour outdoor smoking ban

The city’s Board of Health will consider a 24-hour ban on smoking outdoors on city properties and bar and restaurant patios at a special meeting next Monday.

Ottawa would be a healthier place if smoking is banned at outdoor bar and restaurant patios and on municipal properties such as parks, beaches, sports fields and areas outside city facilities, say public-health officials.

Vendor stands at the Parkdale and ByWard markets are also proposed to fall under new smoke-free bylaws that are to go before the city’s board of health on Feb. 6, with the goal of having any new rules in place by the time warm weather arrives and patios and markets open.

Customers dying for a lung dart must aim for the restaurant’s exit doors if council approves a smoking ban on Ottawa patios.

One prominent franchise is warning the city of obvious complications.

Jonathan Hatchell, vice-president of The Royal Oak pubs, foresees problems with smokers crowding sidewalks and leaving their butts, plus safety issues around people leaving drinks unattended.

Official business done by email

If the city habitually gave out a lot more public information, outsiders wouldn’t be tempted to think senior managers are up to something when they communicate via untrackable private messages that aren’t included in access-to-information releases, Kanata North Councillor Marianne Wilkinson said Monday.

A widened Trim Road on Ottawa’s east side will have two roundabouts, rather than four, a pair of councillors announced on Monday.

Starting this spring, Trim Road is to be widened from two lanes to four between Highway 174 and Innes Road, a project that also involves the installation of water mains and is expected to be completed in 2014.