Municipalities across the country are standing on pins and needles in the lead-up to the summer of 2018, when the federal government is aiming to make marijuana officially legal in Canada.
Even though cannabis retailers could begin operating in the province as early as July 2, a lot of questions still remain about how the regulation and policing of this drug is going to look on the ground.
Thompson city officials are definitely mindful of these questions, especially after the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (NCN) announced on Dec. 21 that they signed a partnership with National Access Cannabis to potentially set up a marijuana retailer in the Hub of the North.
“The issues that we would have to address … from the municipal end of it, would be the zoning aspect to ensure that the use itself is allowed in only specific zones,” said city manager Gary Ceppetelli, going on to explain that they need to keep these retail locations in commercial zones and away from schools and residential areas as much as possible.
With those parameters in place, potential retail locations could be largely relegated to the downtown core, which means that the RCMP will be on high alert in an area that is already known for substance abuse problems.
“From what we’re being told from other organizations and levels of government it likely will increase the cost for enforcement,” said Ceppetelli.
Insp. Kevin Lewis, head of the Thompson detachment, also spoke briefly about this issue during the Jan. 15 council meeting, predicting police will see a rise in impaired driving once legalization takes full effect.
Despite the potential drawbacks associated with this change, Ceppetelli also mentioned that the marijuana industry could provide a boast to the local economy, since the city is already looking at business redevelopment and diversification through initiatives like Thompson 2020.
“It’s about growing the economy,” he said. “Regardless of what they’re selling, the more businesses that are establishing in our community, the bigger tax base that we will get. So, it will grow that tax base and allow us to sort of expand that into various components.”
However, since the buying and selling of legal cannabis will be relegated to privately run storefronts in Manitoba—as opposed to government operated venues in Ontario—organizations like the Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) are wondering how the revenue will be shared.
According to a recent poll commissioned by AMM, 590 out of 1,000 respondents indicated that local government should get between one-half and all of the revenue from the sales of marijuana. Only 240 respondents felt the municipalities should receive less that one half of the revenue, while the remaining people surveyed were unsure.
“These numbers show that Manitobans are concerned about the increased costs of cannabis legalization and their local government’s ability to pay for it,” said AMM president Chris Goertzen in a Jan. 11 press release. “This is just another example of how municipalities deserve a ‘fair share’ of revenues, and our citizens support this.”
In terms of the Manitoba government, minister Blaine Pederson said in a Dec. 28 press release that they are committed to “establishing a highly competitive retail environment” and are currently looking over 100 submissions from applicants hoping to sell marijuana in the province.
The provincial government will ultimately select only four of these submissions, and the successful applicants will be notified sometime in February.
