Allow landlords to ban smoking: Report

Banning smoking completely on bar and restaurant patios, giving landlords the power to demand non-smoking leases and licensing tobacco retailers - those are some of the recommendations in a new anti-smoking report.

The Ontario Tobacco Strategy Advisory Group says it's time for the province to take the next steps to further discourage smoking.

Michael Perley, Director of the Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco, said people living in multi-dwelling buildings, especially older ones, deserve protection from secondhand smoke from neighbouring units.

“A landlord puts a non-smoking clause in the lease and if the leaseholder breaks it that will be material ground for eviction if necessary," he said.

"There are many steps to take before eviction but it could lead to eviction. That is not now possible.”

Health Promotion Minister Margarett Best said her government has already banned smoking in the common areas of buildings, and she's not prepared to go into individual units.

The minister said she'll be reviewing all the recommendations in "Building On our Gains, Taking Action Now, Ontario's Tobacco Control Strategy for 2011-2016" before deciding if she will implement the other possible measures.

An estimated 13,000 Ontarians die prematurely every year due to tobacco-related disease, health officials say.

Making cigarettes more costly and less visible and available would go a long way to preventing young people from starting and help current smokers quit, the anti-tobacco activists say.