Can You Smoke in a Company Vehicle?

A vehicle you drive for work is part of your workplace in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, and smoking and vaping are banned in it. British Columbia says so plainly: you cannot smoke or vape in a work vehicle even if you are the only one inside. Federally regulated employers are the exception, because federal regulations allow them to designate some single-occupant vehicles. This page reflects official pages read on 27 October 2026.

Which provinces ban smoking in work vehicles?

Jurisdiction	What the official source says
Ontario	An enclosed workplace is any part of a building, structure or vehicle with a roof that an employee works in or visits. A delivery truck is one of the province’s examples.
British Columbia	A work vehicle is a workplace; smoking and vaping are banned in it “even if you are the only one inside”.
Alberta	The Act defines a workplace to include work vehicles, and a work vehicle as one owned or leased by an employer and used by employees in the course of employment. No one may smoke or vape in a workplace.
Federal (Non-smokers’ Health Regulations)	Employers may designate certain vehicles, see below.
Manitoba	The provincial page lists indoor workplaces and public vehicles but does not mention work vehicles.

For Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, Yukon and the other territories we did not reach a page that settles the question for work vehicles, so we state no rule for them. Check with the provincial health ministry or the occupational health and safety regulator before assuming a cab is exempt.

Does it matter whether I am alone?

In British Columbia it does not. Alberta’s definition turns on who owns or leases the vehicle and whether employees use it for work, not on how many people are inside. Ontario’s page defines enclosed workplaces by the structure, with a roof, that an employee works in or visits.

This is separate from the rule that bans smoking when a child is in the car, covered in smoking in a car with children. A personal vehicle in British Columbia is covered only when someone under 16 is inside; a company vehicle is covered all the time.

What about vehicles in federally regulated workplaces?

The Non-smokers’ Health Regulations allow an employer to designate a motor vehicle, lighthouse, crane cab, caboose or locomotive for smoking if it is separate from other work spaces, does not share a ventilation system with any other work space, and is usually entered by one person per shift. Designated areas must have ashtrays or non-combustible covered receptacles, but the sign requirement does not apply to these vehicles. This sits alongside the general ban on smoking in federal work spaces; see smoking in federally regulated workplaces.

What must employers do?

In Alberta the manager of a place where smoking is prohibited must not permit it and must post signs. For work vehicles the regulation sets a minimum sign size of 10 cm by 10 cm. Ontario’s and British Columbia’s pages do not describe a vehicle sign rule, so we do not claim one.

What are the penalties?

Ontario lists fines of $1,000 for a first offence and $5,000 for further offences on conviction. We did not find an official fine for work-vehicle smoking specifically in the other provinces; the amounts that apply across places are compared in fines for smoking in prohibited places, and the full province list is in smoking and vaping laws by province.

Does an employer’s own policy go further?

It can. Nothing in the laws above stops a company from banning smoking and vaping in every vehicle it owns, including ones the statute would let a federally regulated employer designate. See workplace smoking laws in Canada for the wider employer duties.

This is general information, not legal advice.