Provincial Marijuana Legislation Introduced
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PRINCE GEORGE – Not much new has come from Victoria around marijuana regulations. Solicitor General Mike Farnworth says that which has already been laid out is now in legislative form. The Province will have jurisdiction over wholesale distribution of cannabis and sales will be allowed through both public and private stores to buyers who are at least 19 years old. But the final discretion is left to local government.
“Whether it’s a public store or a private retail store, they’re all going to have to get the permission of the local government,” stated Farnworth in a media event this morning.
But what was not mentioned in any sense is the one thing municipal government has been waiting for: How to pay for all the changes that will need to be implemented. Months ago, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities set out a long list of things that will impact local governments: Zoning (density, location), retail locations, business licensing, building codes and municipal cost considerations related to local policing, to name a few.
“We’ve been clear and strident in asking that the excise tax be clearly broken down into the federal portion, the provincial portion and local government portion,” says Garth Frizzell, Second Vice-President of the Federation.
