Longtime city councillor Marvin Rotrand wants his Cote-des-Neiges Notre-Dame-de-Grace borough to ban smoking in public parks.

Currently, Montreal’s largest borough allows smokers to light up as long as they are nine metres away from a playground.

Rotrand wants the bylaw to go even further, and has a petition with over a thousand signatures in support of his proposition.

“Everywhere else in North America, we’re seeing this movement for smoke-free parks growing,” he said. “People respect the law. There’s no difficulty in enforcing it.”

Still, there is opposition at Montreal City Hall to the idea - including the borough’s mayor, Sue Montgomery.

“I’m not going to marginalize [smokers] further and drive them inside their homes, which our own health department says is worse,” she said.

The mayor’s claim was backed by healthcare professionals.

“We know that secondhand smoking in terms of outside exposure is not that strong,” Dr. David Martin Milot said. 

Montgomery suggested that Rotrand take this cause up with the federal government instead, a comment he referred to as a distraction tactic. 

“I’m so disappointed by her effort to divert this movement in to trying to lobby the federal government to ban tobacco,” he said. “That is such a long-term project, to get her off the hook from doing anything.”

Rotrand will present the petition to other city councillors on Monday.