Claresholm wins Smoke-Free Spaces award

By Rob Vogt, Local Press Writer
The Town of Claresholm has won a Smoke-Free Spaces award for the recent work on its smoking, cannabis and community standards bylaws.
The award winners were announced and the awards were presented in Edmonton on Feb. 21.
At its Feb. 11 meeting, Claresholm town council had reviewed a letter from Les Hagen, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health, announcing Claresholm had been nominated for the municipality’s leadership in the promotion of smoke-free spaces.
The Smoke-Free Spaces awards program recognizes the leadership of public bodies in protecting residents, visitors, youth, students and staff from the health hazards of smoking and tobacco use.
The program’s partners include Action on Smoking and Health; Alberta Health Services; Alberta Blue Cross; Canadian Cancer Society; Lung Association; Heart and Stroke Foundation; and the Alberta Recreation and Parks Association.
Jason Hemmaway is the town’s safety coordinator.
He explained the whole process began with cannabis becoming legal in October of 2018.
Larger cities were already crafting bylaws, so the Town of Claresholm let that process unfold. The cities were utilizing lawyers and ensuring compliance with all other government regulations.
The town also looked for a municipality closest to Claresholm with a bylaw, and that was Okotoks.
Consequently, the Town of Claresholm used Okotoks’ bylaw, which was based on the City of Calgary’s bylaw, to craft their own.
In addition to re-vamping the smoking bylaw, the town drafted a cannabis bylaw and a community standards bylaw too.
“We won the award because we did the whole gamut – smoking, cannabis, community standards,” Hemmaway said.