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QUEBEC

Trying to kick cigarettes? Quebec Health Minister Gaétan Barrette recommends “vaping.”

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“Electronic cigarettes are a means to quit smoking that is clearly extraordinarily efficient,” he told reporters after a legislative committee on Tuesday, on the occasion of Quebec Tobacco-Free Week (Jan. 18 to 24).

Quebec is expected to clear up the legislative “grey zone” covering e-cigarettes soon. But a spokesperson for the minister assigned to public health, Lucie Charlebois, couldn’t say when the bill would be tabled.

The borough of Montreal North and the Société de Transport de Montréal haven’t waited for the provincial government to put restrictions on e-cigarettes.

As of Tuesday, those who vape in municipal buildings in Montreal North could be fined $50 for a first offence and $100 the next time.

“I’m not against e-cigarettes as a way to quit smoking. In that sense, I say go for it,” said borough mayor Gilles Deguire. “But I don’t see why anyone has to puff in a municipal office building, library, community centre or arena.”