This section provides key resources and information to support champions at post-secondary institutions to strengthen their tobacco control policy. If you are interested in more information about tobacco control bylaws in your city/region, refer to your local Public Health Unit.

 

New! Smoke-Free Ontario Legislation Changes

Effective January 1, 2015 new Smoke-Free Ontario legislation was introduced prohibiting:

  • Smoking on bar and restaurant patios, including covered and non-covered patios at campus pubs, graduate pubs and restaurants.
  • Smoking on playgrounds and public sports fields and surfaces. This may affect some campuses that currently have DSAs located on/near sports fields and playgrounds. With new regulations, any DSA or smoking must be 20 m away from sports fields or playgrounds.
  • Selling tobacco on university and colleges campuses; in convenience stores or other on-campus locations.

Public Health Units are responsible for enforcing the new regulations, and they will be visiting campuses and local bars/restaurants to ensure compliance. Signage for all sports fields and patios will also be made available by your local Health Unit and should be posted in these locations on campus.

Supporting On-Campus Policy Change

Leave The Pack Behind will work with interested campus personnel to improve policy strength and enforcement. If you are interested in spearheading policy advocacy work on your campus with the support of Leave The Pack Behind, please contact us.

Useful Resources

Tobacco-Free Campus Guide This guide provides information to increase support for, and improve, tobacco-free measures on Canadian post-secondary campuses. It outlines how to develop, implement, and support a comprehensive tobacco-free campus. For more information on how-to implement a tobacco-free policy on your campus, please refer to the Tobacco-Free Campus Guide.

Gold Standard Tobacco Policy Writing a clear and concise tobacco policy is vital to ensuring that members of the campus community can understand and comply with the policy. For help with this, read Leave The Pack Behind’s “Gold Standard” Tobacco Control Policy for Post-Secondary Campuses.

Environment Scan of Ontario’s 44 Public Colleges and Universities Each year, Leave The Pack Behind monitors the state of tobacco control policies across all 44 publicly-funded Ontario post-secondary institutions. For more information, see the current (2013-14) environmental scan.