QUEBEC -- The Quebec government is moving to prohibit smoking outright in provincial prisons within a year -- the last Canadian jurisdiction to do so.
The province's public security minister says the ban will extend to courtyards.
Stephane Bergeron said in Quebec City today he knows the move will create tensions in the prison system.
But Bergeron says it is time to move forward. He says Quebec is currently the last province to allow smoking bans in courtyards.
The new rules will be introduced in two prisons this June, with the full ban to be in effect by the spring of 2014.
The Liberal government tried to do the same thing in 2008, only to backtrack three days later because of the reaction.
Corrections officials have complained that a partial ban is difficult to enforce.
Bergeron acknowledges the full ban will result in "added tensions" but says the Parti Quebecois government is vowing to go forward.
