QUEBEC CITY - The province won't force bike riders to put on the protective lids that protect the vulnerable skull, but they will try to persuade riders gently.
Sam Hamad, Transport Minister affirmed on Friday that no change is being considered.
"We are not going to replace the parent by the government. And we are not going to ask police to put a lot of time and measure running after child," he said.
Only in Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Quebec can anyone ride a bike without a helmet, although Manitoba only mandates them for children in baby-seats.
Canada has a patchwork of municipal bylaws and provincial laws mandating the wearing of helmets.
Quebec does not order the wearing of helmets, a position vigorously upheld by Velo-Quebec.
Montreal has no helmet regulations but Westmount makes them mandatory, as does Cote St. Luc.
A 2010 survey by Statistics Canada of the 11.4 million Canadians who rode a bike within the year prior revealed that 41 percent of Quebec bicyclists wear helmets.
That's considerably lower than the national leader Nova Scotia where 66 percent don the head protection, but higher than Saskatchewan, where only 23 percent of riders wore the helmets and Manitoba had 22 percent riding with the lids.
Studies have shown a co-relation between a decline in bicycle deaths and laws forcing helmet usage.
But others have argue that countries like Australia have had trouble getting riders on the road, particularly in their version of the Bixi program, because riders don't want to carry around helmets with them.
The authorities here are instead pushing yet another safety campaign with the message being that it's better to sport the plastic shell than leave home without it.
"The brain is like an egg, not a cooked egg," says Johanne St-Cyr of the Quebec License Bureau. "The helmet really helps."
