The city's bylaw department plans to investigate a possible breach of the city's smoking bylaw at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre.

Responding to questions from the Star Monday, John Taylor, the manager of Bylaw Services, said officers will investigate whether WCC personnel and members of the public are violating the bylaw by smoking next to the jail's public entrance.

According to the city's bylaw, people cannot smoke within three metres of an entrance to a public building.

According to the bylaw, the prohibition of smoking within three metres of entrances include federal, territorial and municipal buildings.

Currently, the WCC has a sand box containing sand within three metres of the public entrance to the jail in which people can dispose of their cigarette butts.

Earlier this month, Star reporters witnessed WCC workers smoking in front of the front entrance.

Taylor said information about the infractions was a concern to his department and that bylaw officers will make a trip to the WCC.

'If people are smoking within the three metres, then we'll go. Bylaw Services is going to investigate this,' Taylor said.

'I can't think of a good reason why they would have an ashtray there.'

He said from his department's perspective, the reason nobody is allowed to smoke near the entrances of buildings was to prevent smoke from being drawn into public buildings.

'When you open a door, all the smoke gets drawn into the building. (The three-metre provision is also so) people don't have to walk through the smoke,' he said.

'It's a safety issue and a health issue,' Taylor said of the bylaw.

WCC supt. Phil Perrin said this morning the sand box was put there recently so people could put their cigarette butts into it, but that the jail's policy prohibits anyone from smoking in front of the entrance.

'That isn't an ashtray; it's supposed to be a sandbox,' he said.

'It was a disposal box so people could put out their cigarettes,' he said.

Perrin said the reason the box was put there was because people were missing the public ashtray located near the parking lot of the facility, and they were leaving their cigarette butts on the ground next to the front entrance.

'People weren't recognizing the ashtray that we have; it looks like a pylon,' he said.

'I don't condone smoking at the front door,' Perrin said when asked about WCC workers seen smoking outside the entrance.

Perrin said an e-mail will be sent to all WCC employees saying smoking at the front door of the WCC is not allowed.

According to the city's smoking bylaw, anyone smoking in a place where it isn't allowed faces the possibility of a fine, imprisonment or both.

People guilty of an offence faces sanctions of: a voluntary fine; a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for six months; or a fine not exceeding $500 or to imprisonment for six months or both.

Failing to comply with signs is a $300-fine; smoking in a prohibited place is a $100-fine; a proprietor permitting smoking in a prohibited place is a $300-fine on the first offence; $500 on the second offence; a $700-fine on the third offence; and an additional $200 per offence for every violation after the third.

See related story, p. 4.