Where You Can Smoke and Vape in Edmonton

Edmonton’s smoking and vaping rules are in section 25 of Public Spaces Bylaw 20700, which came into force on 12 May 2025. The City’s consolidation dated 6 October 2026 shows section 25 as amended by Bylaw 21502. This page follows that consolidated text, read on 27 October 2026.

Where is smoking and vaping banned in Edmonton?

Under section 25(1), no one may smoke or vape in a public space that is:

• inside a building
• on a patio
• inside a vehicle for hire or a transit vehicle
• within school property, child care facility property, a cemetery or a transit station
• within 10 metres of a bus stop, doorway, or openable window or air intake of a building or patio
• within a playground, sport field, skate park, bicycle park, golf course, outdoor theatre, outdoor pool, water spray park, outdoor skating rink or off-leash area
• within Sir Winston Churchill Square and City Hall Plaza, Fort Edmonton Park, the John Janzen Nature Centre, the Edmonton Valley Zoo, the Muttart Conservatory or William Hawrelak Park
• within any area the City has designated as a no smoking area

The 10-metre distance applies to all buildings, not just City ones. This is a rule by facility, not a blanket park ban, so an open lawn outside those listed areas is not covered. Section 25(2) lets people smoke or vape in a designated smoking area.

Does it cover cannabis?

The bylaw defines smoke as holding or using a heated or lit tobacco product, tobacco-like product or cannabis, so the same locations apply to cannabis as well as to tobacco and vapes.

What are the fines?

The fine schedule lists $250 for smoking or vaping within 10 metres of an entrance, and $500 for an owner permitting smoking or vaping where it is prohibited. Under section 25(3), a person who owns or occupies a place where it is prohibited must not let anyone do it there. The schedule has other lines for patios, vehicles and recreation areas, but its layout is hard to read in the published PDF, so check the City’s current schedule for those amounts.

Who enforces it?

Bylaw enforcement officers do. The bylaw defines them as peace officers appointed under the Peace Officer Act, bylaw enforcement officers appointed under Edmonton’s Enforcement Bylaw, and police officers. Under section 26(2), a person must stop smoking or vaping in a public space if an officer directs them to. Section 25(4) preserves the rights of Indigenous peoples to traditional spiritual and cultural practices and ceremonies.

The bylaw text does not give a reporting number, and we did not open an official Edmonton page with one.

How it compares

Edmonton’s 10-metre door distance is twice the 5 metres in Calgary’s bylaw. Red Deer uses 10 metres around recreation facilities rather than at doors. Provincial rules for all Alberta cities, including the 18+ age limit, are on the Alberta bylaw page and in the provincial summary. See the bylaw hub for other cities.