Notice: Due to COVID-19, complaint response to smoking or vaping in any location is suspended at this time.
Under the City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 709-Smoking. In Toronto, it is against the law to smoke within 9 metres of an entrance or exit of any building that is used by the public.
Building entrances and exits include:
- Municipal buildings (such as City Hall, civic centres, recreation and community centres, libraries, arenas and administrative offices)
- Shopping malls, stores
- Offices and institutional buildings
- Multi-residential buildings (condos, apartments and other similar residential buildings) that can be accessed by the public. For example, the smoking ban would apply if there is an entrance at street level that allows the public to enter the building, such as a lobby or foyer with a buzzer, before another set of locked doors.
As of January 1, 2015, it is illegal to:
- smoke on and around children's playgrounds and publicly owned sport fields and surfaces (e.g., areas for basketball, baseball, soccer or beach volleyball, ice rinks, tennis courts, splash pads and swimming pools that are owned by a municipality, the province or a post secondary education institution)
- smoke on all bar and restaurant patios, whether covered or not (with an exemption for uncovered patios established by the Royal Canadian Legion - Ontario Provincial Command before November 18, 2013)
- sell tobacco on university and college campuses (this applies to buildings that are owned and areas that are leased by a post secondary institution or student union)
Building owners/operators are required to:
- Post no-smoking signs, as described in the bylaw, at building entrances and exits
- Move ashtrays away from smoke-free areas
- Ensure no one is smoking within nine metres of building entrances or exits
Signs
No smoking signs can be obtained from Toronto Public Health through a variety of ways. Signs are available for download on the City of Toronto website (under building entrances/exits), which can be printed out and posted where necessary. Additionally, signs can also be mailed out by calling Toronto Health Connection. The third method to receive a sign is by visiting one of Toronto Public Health's Inspection Offices to pick-up one in person.
Enforcement
Enforcement Officers will be responding to complaints. Enforcement Officers will be enforcing the bylaw in addition to the existing Smoke-Free Ontario Act.
Live Tobacco-Free: this City of Toronto website provides information on the legislation, the bylaw, a downloadable bylaw sign, as well as Q's and A's.
For more information on the bylaw, to report a bylaw infraction and for resources to quit smoking, contact Toronto Health Connection or visit www.toronto.ca/health
Related information:
