Where Can You Smoke or Vape in Canada's Parks?

Canada has no single rule for smoking in parks. At Parks Canada campgrounds, cannabis use is limited to your own campsite, and the park itself decides how far from playgrounds, trails and buildings you must stay. Provincial parks are stricter or looser depending on the province. This page covers what the official park pages say about campsites, trails, buildings and fire. For provincial bans on playgrounds, patios and school grounds, see outdoor smoking bans.

Parks Canada campgrounds

Parks Canada’s cannabis page says that in its campgrounds, non-medical cannabis consumption is limited to the visitor’s campsite. It is not allowed in common areas, which the page lists as playgrounds, kitchen shelters, washrooms, trails and roads. The page covers cannabis only. It has no tobacco or vaping rules, so tobacco falls to each park’s own page.

Parks add their own layers:

• Kootenay (BC). Smoking and vaping are not permitted in the campground within 6 metres of common areas, and not inside oTENTik units at Redstreak Campground. A daily ban on alcohol and cannabis consumption, and on fires, runs from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. During summer long weekends, possession of alcohol and cannabis is banned at all campgrounds.
• Banff (Alberta). Cannabis use is limited to your campsite, and cannabis smoking and vaping are added to the campground bans on campfires and alcohol from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
• Kejimkujik (Nova Scotia). The visitor rules say smoking and vaping are only allowed at registered campsites, and cannabis is allowed on registered Parks Canada campsites only, not inside oTENTik units, Oasis, rustic cabins or the yurt.
• Mallorytown Landing and Landons Bay (Ontario). A bulletin issued 18 January 2021 bans smoking and vaping of all substances inside oTENTik accommodations. It allows them in leased campsite areas outside those structures.

Trails, buildings and townsites

For anything outside a campground, Parks Canada’s cannabis page says use may differ between places, that provincial, territorial and municipal rules apply, and that some locations or townsites have additional rules. In practice the answer sits in a bulletin or superintendent’s notice for the park. These orders are made under section 7(1) of the National Parks General Regulations, and the pages we read say violators may be charged under the Canada National Parks Act.

Park	What the official page says
Kejimkujik (NS), notice signed 15 May 2026	No smoking or vaping of cannabis or tobacco within 20 m of a playground, 9 m of a trail or 4 m of public buildings, or on beaches. Kejimkujik Seaside is smoke-free except in a designated smoking area or a parking lot.
Banff (AB)	Cannabis is permitted on front-country and backcountry trails, and Alberta’s rule of no closer than 5 m from buildings applies unless otherwise posted. Cave and Basin National Historic Site does not permit it.
Banff Upper Hot Springs	Smoking and vaping of both cannabis and tobacco are prohibited across the site.
Town of Banff	The town bylaw bans smoking and vaping cannabis in all public areas within the townsite, and Parks Canada enforces it at its facilities in town.
Mallorytown Landing and Landons Bay (ON), 2021	No smoking or vaping of any substance within 20 m of playgrounds and public buildings, including washrooms and picnic shelters.

Banff’s page shows a last-modified date of 3 November 2022 and says Parks Canada may adjust the rules. The Hamlet of Lake Louise, which Parks Canada administers, follows provincial law instead of a town bylaw. Distances to doorways in provinces are compared in smoking distance from doors.

Fire rules and cigarette butts

Fire danger can override a campsite right. In August 2023 Mount Revelstoke National Park issued a bulletin prohibiting smoking or vaping of cannabis or tobacco throughout the park to prevent wildfires during elevated fire danger. The page gives an end date of 1 September 2023 and also says until further notice, so we cannot say whether it is still in force.

The National Parks of Canada Fire Protection Regulations add two federal rules. The superintendent may prohibit smoking in an area by posted notice for fire prevention, and breaking such a notice is an offence. Separately, section 5(3) bars anyone in a park from discarding a lighted cigar, cigarette, match or other burning substance, or any unused match or article that could start a fire.

Campfire rules are set park by park. Kootenay permits fires from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. in the metal ring provided, requires them to be attended at all times and fully extinguished before you leave, and asks each registered party to hold a fire permit. Kejimkujik allows fires only in designated metal fire boxes and asks you to make sure the fire is out before bed.

Provincial parks

Province	At a campsite	Elsewhere in the park
Ontario Parks	Smoking tobacco or cannabis, or vaping, is permitted on a registered campsite	Not in buildings, enclosed public places, sheltered areas with a roof and more than two walls, children’s playgrounds and 20 m around them, or sporting areas and 20 m around them. Prohibited in all roofed accommodations and all day use facilities.
BC Parks	Allowed at registered frontcountry campsites in some campgrounds only, and may be banned for fire risk	Not allowed in most areas. Never allowed in the backcountry, including park roads, parking lots and trailheads.
Alberta Parks	Adults may use cannabis at a registered campsite, except Comfort Camping sites	Allowed in public areas where tobacco is permitted. Not within 5 m of playgrounds, sports fields, outdoor theatres or outdoor pools and splash pads. No cannabis in motorized vehicles.
Manitoba	Smoking or vaping cannabis, medical or non-medical, is prohibited at all campsites, including inside tents, trailers and motor homes	Non-medical cannabis is prohibited in all public places in provincial parks. Medical users may use it in outdoor public places except campsites, beaches, playgrounds and within 8 m of buildings and similar structures.
Nova Scotia	See below	Campfires and smoking are not allowed in day-use parks or at beaches at any time. Alcohol and cannabis are not permitted at day-use parks.

Manitoba is the clearest outlier. Its Q&A treats a campsite as a public place, so a campsite offers no exception. Private and leased cottage lots inside the parks are not public places, and that Q&A says the public-place ban does not apply to them. The British Columbia government’s cannabis page says smoking and vaping cannabis is not allowed in provincial parks except in some designated areas and campsites, which matches BC Parks.

Fire and butts in provincial parks

BC Parks says campfires are only allowed in designated fire pits, a fire must never be left unattended, and it must be fully out with ashes cool to the touch before you leave or sleep. It adds that temporary campfire bans are becoming more common because of wildfire risk. Alberta Parks allows campfires only in facilities provided and says bans or travel restrictions may follow when the hazard is extreme. For cigarettes, Alberta Parks tells smokers to put them out completely and discard them in an unburnable can filled with sand, never on the ground and never hot into the trash.

In Nova Scotia, people at camping parks must follow the daily provincial burn restrictions. The government’s May 2026 release says campfires are only permitted after 2 p.m. and before 8 a.m. when the BurnSafe map is green, none when it is red, and a $25,000 fine applies to violations of the daily burn restrictions. Fines for the smoking rules themselves are in fines for smoking in prohibited places.

How to check before you go

Start with the park’s own page and its bulletins or superintendent’s notices, since orders change with fire danger and season. Then check the municipal bylaw if the park includes a townsite, as Banff does. Our can I smoke here tool covers city rules, and the provincial laws page covers the baseline.

What we could not confirm

• Quebec’s Sépaq parks. We found no official Sépaq page we could open, so we state nothing about smoking, vaping or cannabis there.
• Saskatchewan Parks, New Brunswick parks, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon and the territories. The official pages did not load or did not address campsites.
• Nova Scotia’s rule for smoking at camping parks and rented campsites. The 2026 government release names day-use parks and beaches only, and Parks Nova Scotia’s rules page did not open for us.
• Whether the Mount Revelstoke order of August 2023 is still in force, and whether the bulletin dates on other Parks Canada pages are current. Several show inconsistent dates.
• Any Parks Canada rule on disposing of cigarette butts. The Kootenay and Kejimkujik pages we read have none.
• Fines for breaking a superintendent’s order. The bulletins we read say only that violators may be charged under the Canada National Parks Act.
• Whether Manitoba’s Q&A, which has no date, matches the current park rules.