While the federal government is forging ahead with plans to legalize marijuana for recreational use by next summer and the province is soliciting input on how it should regulate this new industry, city governments are still grappling with how the rule changes will affect them.
Municipal staff in Coquitlam will begin looking into the issue after council decided last week to move the creation of a regulatory framework for cannabis sales to a B priority in its 2018 business plan.
But a lot of the city’s work will depend on what is happening at the provincial and federal level.
“It is a bit of an unknown at this point,” said John Dumont, Coquitlam’s deputy city manager, during the Dec. 4 council meeting. “It is something we will have to address when we see the details of what they are planning to roll out.”
Jim McIntyre, Coquitlam’s general manager of planning and development, said a working group made up of staff from planning, bylaws and legal services is being put together to research and analyze the issue. He expects to have a report outlining the various steps forward before council early in the New Year.
“I guess we are all under the gun,” McIntyre said. “The federal government is setting that pretty ambitious startup [date].”
There are many unknowns to be worked out, he added, and given that all Canadian municipalities will be tackling the rule changes at the same time, it will be harder for cities to learn what works best from one another.
“It is going to be a crash course,” he said.
That could have planners looking at jurisdictions south of the border, McIntyre said, like Washington State, which legalized in 2013.
“There are maybe some things we can learn from there,” he added, before cautioning that there are significant differences between the structure of local government in the U.S. compared to Canada.
Meanwhile, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody are still waiting to begin the process of creating a regulatory framework for cannabis sales. Last spring, PoCo amended its zoning bylaw to ban the sale and distribution of recreational marijuana and marijuana products ahead of the federal government’s decision to legalize next year.
Jennifer Little, PoCo’s manager of planning, said once the new federal and provincial legislation is in place, the council may “revisit these restrictions to determine the appropriate regulations, policies and processes.”
And in a statement, Port Moody said it has yet to consider the marijuana issue and no direction from council has been provided at this time.
TAKE WEED WITH TRI-CITY MP DEC. 18
Do you have questions about the changes coming to Canada’s federal marijuana laws?
Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam Liberal MP Ron McKinnon will host MP Bill Blair, the parliamentary secretary to both the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Justice at a town hall in Coquitlam next week.
The event will take place in Room A1470 at the Douglas College David Lam campus (1250 Pinetree Way) on Monday, Dec. 18. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the town hall will begin at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call 604-927-1080 or go to www.ronmckinnon.org.
gmckenna@tricitynews.com
