Councillors approved a staff recommendation to restrict smoking to parking lots - and keep smokers, and their second-hand smoke, away from kids.

"I see this as two issues - the obvious public health issue and I also see a public nuisance issue," said Ward 7 Coun. John Brassard. "(A ban) sends the right message, that Barrie supports a healthy lifestyle."

But Ward 1 Coun. Mike Ramsay called for a "reasonable compromise" by banning smoking within nine metres of an entrance to any city facility and playgrounds, just as councillors last year asked staff to examine.

"What we'd end up with here is a corridor of smoke," said Ward 3 Coun. Rod Jackson, as he urged his council colleagues to defeat Ramsay's suggestion to go with that plan, rather than with a broader ban.

"I have two little kids and have to explain to them all the time why people smoke, and I can't."

Ramsay said the city has to work with smokers, who amount to 20 per cent of the population as they indulge in their legal activity, while protecting the health of others. A broad ban, he added, would be unenforceable.

"Twenty per cent of the population is still addicted to nicotine. That's a sizeable margin," he said.

Smokers complied with the city's ban introduced early in the decade, before Ontario passed a ban. The city, Ramsay added, therefore needs to keep working with smokers to help them quit and reduce the public-health hazard.