Where Provincial Smoke-Free Laws Reach a Waterpipe

Ontario is the only one of the four provinces we read where an official page spells out the waterpipe rule. Its Smoke-Free Ontario Act, 2017 prohibits using a waterpipe to smoke tobacco shisha in enclosed workplaces, enclosed public places and designated areas such as bar and restaurant patios. Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba ban smoking tobacco in enclosed public places and workplaces, and their Acts do not use the word hookah, so a lounge there is judged against the general wording.

Ontario

An Ontario ministry fact sheet, hosted by the City of Toronto and dated June 2023, says tobacco shisha cannot be smoked in a waterpipe in enclosed workplaces, enclosed public places or other designated places such as bars, lounges, restaurants and their patios. Ontario’s own page on where you cannot smoke or vape says patio rules reach public areas within 9 metres of the patio. That page never mentions waterpipes, so the fact sheet is where the waterpipe rule is spelled out.

Local public health units inspect and answer complaints. The fact sheet says inspectors may take a shisha sample from a waterpipe in use to confirm whether it contains tobacco. An individual convicted of smoking or vaping in a prohibited place faces a fine of up to $1,000 for a first offence and $5,000 for any further offence. Herbal shisha is treated separately, and the herbal and nicotine-free shisha page covers that.

Alberta

The Tobacco, Smoking and Vaping Reduction Act (the King’s Printer copy says it is current as of 11 June 2025) says in section 3 that no person shall smoke or vape in a workplace or in a public place. A public place is any enclosed area the public can enter. “Smoke” means to smoke, hold or otherwise have control over a heated or lit tobacco product. A waterpipe loaded with tobacco shisha involves a heated or lit tobacco product, which is how we read the wording to reach it. We searched the Act and found none of the words waterpipe, hookah, shisha or herbal.

Section 6 bars a manager from permitting smoking or vaping where it is prohibited. Under section 8, a person who contravenes section 3 faces a fine of up to $1,000 for a first offence and up to $5,000 for a second or later one.

British Columbia

Section 2.3(1) of the Tobacco and Vapour Products Control Act says a person must not smoke tobacco, hold lighted tobacco, use an e-cigarette or hold an activated e-cigarette in a fully or substantially enclosed place that the public is invited into or that is a workplace. The same rule applies within a prescribed distance of a doorway, window or air intake. The Act defines tobacco as tobacco leaves or products produced from tobacco in any form or for any use, and it contains no waterpipe wording.

Responsibility reaches the premises. If someone breaks the rule in a public place, each manager, owner and lessee is deemed to have contravened it, and the employer is liable for a workplace. The defence is reasonable care and diligence. Section 12 sets fines of up to $2,500 for a first offence and up to $5,000 for a subsequent offence.

Manitoba

The Smoking and Vapour Products Control Act defines smoking as smoking a cigarette, cigar, pipe or other device used for smoking tobacco or cannabis. Section 2(1) says no person shall smoke in an enclosed public place or an indoor workplace, and the definition of enclosed public place lists restaurants and licensed premises. The Act does not name hookah. An individual who contravenes the rule faces $100 to $500 for a first offence, $200 to $750 for a second and $300 to $1,000 for a third or later one.

The four side by side

Province	Names waterpipes in what we read	Main places covered	Maximum fine, first offence
Ontario	Yes, in the ministry fact sheet	Enclosed workplaces, enclosed public places, patios	$1,000
Alberta	No	Workplaces, public places	$1,000
British Columbia	No	Enclosed public places, workplaces, near entrances	$2,500
Manitoba	No	Enclosed public places, indoor workplaces	$500 for an individual

Cities can add their own limits on top. The municipal waterpipe bylaw guide lists the ones we have been able to read, and the provincial and territorial legislation comparison puts the smoke-free Acts side by side.

What we could not confirm

• Quebec, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador and the territories. We could not open an official page for their smoke-free laws that deals with waterpipes, so we say nothing about them.
• How Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba apply their Acts to herbal blends or to a lounge in practice. We read the Acts only, without the regulations or any enforcement guidance.
• Whether Alberta, British Columbia or Manitoba grant any lounge exemption through a regulation. The Acts we read do not.
• Patio rules in Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba. We did not read the regulations that set outdoor distances.
• The text of the Ontario Act itself. The Ontario e-Laws page returned no readable statute text, so the Ontario points rest on the two Ontario pages cited above.