Landlords in Nova Scotia are praising the provincial government for giving them the ability to ban marijuana smoking on their properties once pot is legalized.

The new act would also give tenants the ability to give early notice if they don't like the changes included in their leases. Kevin Russell, executive director of the Investment Property Owners Association of Nova Scotia (IPOANS), says that’s exactly what landlords wanted.

“If a landlord so decides to choose to ban or prohibit cannabis use and cultivation, it's backed up in law, in an act,” Russell says.

Russell says that’s also what tenants are seeking.

“It sort of brings a guarantee to them that if they ask the question, ‘Is this a cannabis-free building?’ The landlord can answer, ‘Yes,” he says.

That will also go for affordable housing.

“If you can smoke in a building, you can smoke in a building. If you can't smoke in a building, you can't smoke in a building,” says Nova Scotia Community Services Minister Kelly Regan.

Regan says if you can smoke tobacco in public housing, you'll soon be able to smoke marijuana as well. She says there are 850 smoke-free public housing units, but 6,500 where you can smoke.

“Currently at Housing Nova Scotia there are some buildings that are smoke-free and there are some where you can smoke, and those rules will continue to be enforced,” Regan says.

A majority of Maritimers, however, support a landlord’s right to keep their buildings smoke-free from marijuana. In a recent poll, 73 per cent of Nova Scotians supported a smoke-free ban, down slightly in New Brunswick at 68 per cent. In P.E.I., 72 residents supported a landlord’s right to alter current lease agreements to ban the smoking of marijuana once it’s legalized.

Landlords must give tenants four months’ notice that they will be altering their lease agreements. During that time, tenants have the right to leave the building.

The Cannabis Control Act states you’ll be allowed to grow up to four plants in a Housing Nova Scotia unit.

IPOANS is still looking to clarify how medical marijuana will fit into the Cannabis Control Act’s restrictions.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Laura Brown.