This is how the government helps people quit smoking, they just make it illegal. Nice going you idiots. This is like how they reduce the amount of garbage going to landfill, they simply restrict how many bags or cans you are allowed to put at the curb, whizzo! we have less garbage! Are we now going to see people in hospital jonnies clutching an i.v. cart having a fag at the edge of 15th avenue? Shall we place ashtrays every twenty feet oops I mean every 9.45 metres along the streets bordering the hospital grounds? why not? that is where all the butts are going to start piling up. INVESTMENT TIP: buy a house across from the hospital on Alward Street, and convert it into a smoking den, sell cigarettes, gum, coffee too. You'll make a killing, and frustrate some mid level bureaucrats in the bargain. Offer free transportation by golf cart bus, door to door service, and make sure that there are no ashtrays in the bus, you would not want your customers to break the law now would you?
the NON smoker; metalman.

HeeHee! Good one.

hey METALMAN...i take it you are a smoker...and you are probably part of our city's problem with cigarette butts everywhere.

You think i want to have to walk through a cloud of smoke to go visit my sick grandmother?!?!

And how does that make government idiots?

Obviously it looks like the parking lot at the ex-plywood plant should be a no-idling zone. If it wasn't before. Priorities, folks!

Well.. what a predicament. I guess the city might as well plan for a set of lights for pedestians to cross 15th ave. Oh wait.. then we would be inturrupting the flow of heavy traffic on a major artery heading into town. How bout an walkway overpass? That's better.. Yes I'm full of good ideas. Umm no good either.. Now that we got the smokers to their destination residents on the opposite side of 15th ave will complain about smokers standing on the sidewalk staring into their houses and the excessive amount of butts they leave behind. Oh and then there's the matter of the church and the LICENSED daycare / preschool which if I am not mistaken falls under Northern Health regulations. I guess a person could always build a neighbourhood pub...oh yeah I forgot, can't smoke there either. Forget it NH opened the can of worms, now they can wrangle them back in.

No schools around so the hospital smokers can blend in with the student smokers? Bummer.

Hey wavoes! please take a moment to read the tail end of my post, and you will discover that I am a NON smoker. It's okay, I am not offended. I feel obliged to speak out against stupid government rules
(oops, an oxymoron) The point, if one cares to consider it, is that you are not going to convince people to quit smoking by making it illegal to smoke if you happen to be standing within the boundaries of any certain establishment. Proclaiming the entire grounds smoke free will not make people kick the habit, the ones who need a smoke will be standing on the fringes of the property, smoking cigarettes, and some of them will discard their butts on the sidewalk, or on the street. Have a look at any other situations like our schools, have all the kids quit smoking? NO. They go out as far as they have to away from the schools, and then light up, and in many instances, litter as well. The only solution is to build proper smoke rooms, ventilated and maintained. These can be designed, and if properly done, work very well. I can think of a couple of P.G. Pubs that did it right, spent the money on walls and ventilation, hell even the treasure cove did a smoking area right when they built. I can also name a few Pubs who cheaped out and did'nt build proper smoking rooms, and it really showed, but they tyrned out to be the winners, since the government outlawed smoking in public establishments.
How does this make the government out to be a pack of idiots? By proclaiming that they are making the world a healthier place by preventing smoking on hospital grounds, because that is idiotic. The world is fast being inherited by the meek complainers, who expect their every whim to be catered to.
metalman. (NON SMOKER, sympathetic to those still addicted to tobacco, and not one who littered the earth with butts when I did smoke. HELL! I would still be smoking if it wasn't so unhealthy)

Was down at the hospital last night,the ash trays are gone....the butts are just ending up on the side walks. The smokers are just going a little wee bit farther from the front door. Not a bylaw officer in site....I guess they go home at 5:00. Whats the penalty.....they gonna haul some lil ol smoke tote'n lady hooked to an I.V. off to jail?? Its a joke !! At least when the smoking area was there with the ash trays it was kinda in a confined area. P.S....I'm a non smoker...never did.

From a non-smoker: I agree that this law is pointless. Having said that, the entrance way is NOT the place to be smoking, there should be a designated area for those patients who do smoke as well as staff. Ventilate it, enforce it and just let people be. This law is going to cause more problems than it solves. If smokers want to (or feel they need to) continue smoking, that's their perogative, so give them a place - out of the way. A place that can be easily avoided by non smokers.

Well said Singlemom.

Hey wavoes
I take it your a gum chewer and you are probably part of our city's problem with gum everywhere.