By James Peters

City relaxes smoking ban in Kamloops parks

Jun 14, 2016 | 4:39 PM

KAMLOOPS — Emissions from the Ribfest ribbers won’t be the only smoke in Riverside Park this summer.

Kamloops council has voted to relax its complete ban on smoking in city parks in order to allow special events such as Ribfest to include a smoking section within their beer gardens.

Councillor Denis Walsh was one of the councillors in favour.

“I support the idea of it for special events, but also look at it as a double-standard. It’s also encouraging smokers to drink, because that is the only way they are going to be able to smoke in the park. They’re going to have to go in the beer garden. So it’s a little bit strange. I always thought we might have gone too far with our smoking ban,” said Walsh. 

Councillor Pat Wallace, in reference to the original ban approved by council last year, said “be very careful what you vote for.”

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