NCC tells major festivals to create designated areas for smoking cigarettes, pot

For the first time, patrons of Ottawa’s Jazzfest at Confederation Park will have a fenced-off area where they can smoke or vape … whether it’s tobacco or pot.

The change comes at the request of the National Capital Commission, which says it will ask organizers of all major events held on its land to create designated smoking areas.

The change comes as the city heads into the first summer festival season since the legalization of recreational marijuana in Canada.

The issue won’t arise at events held in city parks because they are covered by a bylaw that bans smoking on municipal property.

However, some large festivals are on NCC land, where there is no federal law preventing smoking, although it is discouraged.

That includes Bluesfest at LeBreton Flats, which plans to erect a fenced-off smoking area near the main stage.

The jazz and blues smoking areas will be open only to those over the age of 19.

The NCC says it will also ask the Canadian Tulip Festival at Commissioners Park near Dow’s Lake and the Summer Solstice and Indigenous Festival at Vincent Massey Park to create smoking areas. Officials are still deciding what other festivals are large enough to require smoking zones, NCC spokeswoman Dominique Huras said.

Related

• What to expect when Ottawa’s legal pot shops open on April 1
• First legal cannabis lounge in Ontario to be staged in middle of a beer festival

The smoking area at Jazzfest “acknowledges the need to accommodate anyone wishing to live a musical experience in peace and to avoid inconveniencing anyone,” Huras said in a statement. “We are counting on the public’s co-operation to respect this directive for the well-being of all.”

The NCC supports Ottawa’s smoke-free regulations and for many years “has been striving to maintain a smoke-free environment on its lands,” Huras said.

The NCC board is scheduled to discuss a cannabis policy at its meeting in June. Huras declined to say whether that may include new federal regulations banning smoking on NCC land, saying legal experts were considering various options.

“The vast majority of people enjoy our public and green spaces in a respectful manner and we do not expect this to change,” she said in the statement.

A spokesman for Jazzfest said creating a smoking area was a good idea in the interim.

“Since Confederation Park is on federal land, citizens are free to smoke cannabis on the property and we cannot deny them this right,” said Adi Cajo, the festival’s director of operations. “We don’t know whether people will use (the smoking area) or not until the festival begins, but we will do our best to advertise it and inform our patrons of it.”

Jazzfest has previously politely asked concert-goers to refrain from smoking cigarettes in the park. People at the festival respect those around them, Cajo said. “We haven’t encountered many issues of people simply lighting up in the crowd.”

If staff saw anyone smoking, they would ask them to leave the park and smoke on the sidewalk, he said.

However, the prospect of people standing on the sidewalk outside the festival smoking pot is another matter.

That would be legal — In Ontario, sidewalks are one of the few public places where it’s legal to smoke pot — but might make some people uncomfortable.

“Smoking cannabis on the sidewalk is not the same as cigarettes, probably because we haven’t fully adapted to the legalization of it,” Cajo said. “It’s been illegal for so long that it just feels odd to see someone freely smoking cannabis on the sidewalk, and therefore the presence of a designated smoking area feels like a natural transition.”

He doesn’t anticipate any problems this year. “Based on our patron history, I don’t foresee any issues in regards to hordes of patrons smoking on our festival grounds.”

Jazzfest provides a prime example of the unusual jurisdictional tangle in Ottawa that complicates no-smoking rules.

The festival’s main stage is at NCC-owned Confederation Park on Elgin Street at Laurier Avenue West, where smoking is legal, though discouraged. However, concerts are also held across the street at Marion Dewar Plaza, a city-owned property where smoking is not allowed. Anyone lighting up there could face a fine if a bylaw officer happens by.

The NCC requested that Jazzfest create a clearly-labelled smoking area in Confederation Park away from the general public, Cajo said.

To ease the way for concert-goers who cross the street, though, Jazzfest will also build a fenced-in smoking area at Marion Dewar Plaza. It won’t be on city land, but rather on a tiny slice of NCC-owned property on the plaza’s east side, closer to Queen Elizabeth Drive.

Both smoking areas will be outside Jazzfest’s ticketed and alcohol licensed areas.

“I think this approach is fair for both parties, smokers and non-smokers,” Cajo said. “At the end of the day, we want all of our patrons to have a good time at our festival, and we’ve learned over the years, by taking a neutral, but fair approach, as opposed to an authoritative one, people are more keen to respect our wishes and others around them.”

What about festivals held on the street, such as Glowfair on Bank Street or the giant Canada Day party on several downtown streets? Smoking tobacco or cannabis is allowed on streets that are closed to traffic, a spokesman for the City of Ottawa said, but not at patios or in tents or other enclosed structures on the street because that would violate the provincial no-smoking law.

[email protected]

twitter.com/JacquieAMiller

ALSO IN THE NEWS:

Downtown Perth evacuated after crash causes gas leak

 Province to fund three Ottawa safe injection sites, but not OPH’s Clarence Street location

More than a dozen men involved in sexual harassment, assault against female contractors at OCH, $70M lawsuit alleges