COUNTDOWN TO LEGALIZATION
TRUDEAU SAYS MARIJUANA WILL BE LEGAL AS OF OCTOBER 17
NOW THAT THE BILL IS GOING TO HAVE ROYAL ASSENT, THE PROVINCES ARE GOING TO HAVE TO STEP UP. — TRINA FRASER, CANNABIS BUSINESS SPECIALIST AT BRAZEAU SELLER LAW
Mark your calendars: after 95 years, Canada’s prohibition on recreational cannabis will come to an end on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018.
But how many storefront retailers will actually open for business that day is just one of the many questions that remain, and over the next four months it will be largely up to the provinces and territories to produce the answers.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the date in the House of Commons Wednesday, the day after the Cannabis Act passed its final vote in parliament. While the federal government had previously estimated eight to 12 weeks would be needed between passage of the bill and legalization, Trudeau said that timeline was too aggressive.
“We heard from provinces and territories who told us they needed more time to transition to this new framework,” he said.
“It is our hope that as of October 17, there will be a smooth operation of retail cannabis outlets operated by the provinces, with an online mail-delivery system operated by the provinces, that will ensure that this happens in an orderly fashion.”
There are an assortment of models in place as provinces prepare for the legal sale of cannabis. The western provinces will allow at least some private retailers to operate, while eastern provinces (including Ontario but excepting Newfoundland) are restricting sales to government-run stores.
Some provinces, however, are far ahead of others. Trina Fraser, a cannabis business specialist at Brazeau Seller Law, said New Brunswick is nearly ready to start stocking its store shelves, for example, while B.C. hasn’t even started accepting applications for licences to operate private stores. Ontario has so far announced locations for only four of its government-run stores; the former Liberal government planned to have 40 open by year’s end, but with incoming premier Doug Ford having mused during the election campaign about opening sales to the private sector, plans in the country’s largest province could still change.
Promise made, promise kept — which is not something this government has been able to say very often.
The passage of the potlegalization bill before the summer recess was crucial for Justin Trudeau, who during his 959 days in power has garnered a reputation as a promise-breaker.
After reneging on the pledge to usher in electoral reform and blowing through the commitment to rack up “modest” deficits, this was a big one — and it needed to be fulfilled, if anyone was to going to believe anything the prime minister said in the run-up to the 2019 election.
The summer hiatus provides a convenient demarcation between the first three years in power, which were all about trying to live up to the sprawling campaign platform, and the final one, which will look ahead to the coming vote.
It would be no surprise if the Liberals prorogue Parliament when it returns in the fall, pressing the reset button and allowing the government to look forward in a new throne speech. Given this is already the fourth-longest session in Canadian parliamentary history, there would be no question of the Liberals having abused the prorogation option.
The past session was a productive one for the government — it passed 19 bills in the spring, taking the total since it came to power to 64. As well as the Cannabis Act, Parliament passed the accompanying impaired driving bill, legislation against harassment in the workplace, the national security bill and omnibus transportation legislation that includes new consumer protections for air travellers.
TrudeauMeter, the independent promise-tracking website, estimates the government has now achieved around a third of its campaign commitments, with roughly another third listed as being in progress. But it also lists one in five as not having been started and a further one in five as having been abandoned.
The legalization of pot is at least a visible manifestation that the government is trying to keep its side of the bargain. It will prove popular among younger and more progressive Liberal supporters. But there is a feeling among many Liberal MPs that the government needs to reconnect with the centrist middleclass voters that elected it in the first place.
Ottawa veterans complain that Trudeau’s inexperience has left him as the focal point of the government in all things — which works when things are going well, but is a problem when the bad news starts to accumulate.
The initial wave of enthusiasm for the Liberals has passed and the government has to start enthusing voters with a vision of what a second term might look like.
Whatever the leader decides to put in the shop window, it has to talk more about the economic issues that make a difference to the lives of the people who are struggling with the cost of living.
“What I get at the front doors is: ‘I don’t want to hear any more apologies. I don’t want to see any more payouts. I don’t want any more political correctness. Talk about what you’re doing on the economy,’” said one Liberal MP.
The flagship policy in 2019 is likely to be a national pharmacare plan. On Wednesday, the Liberals bolstered their claim to ownership of an idea that has been long pioneered by the NDP when they unveiled the members of an advisory council that will make recommendations next spring on design and implementation. Ginette Petitpas Taylor said there are no preconceived notions of what the system might look like, but she is the health minister and Bill Morneau is the finance minister. He appeared to have a very clear preconceived notion of how a national drug plan might look when he said this spring that it would likely fill the gaps in the existing system — that is, cover the 3.5 million people who are either not covered by workplace drug plans or who cannot afford to fill their prescriptions. The option of covering everyone would cost a net $19.3 billion, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer; the more limited option favoured by Morneau would cost $3.6 billion.
At a time of economic uncertainty caused by Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, skinny pharmacare is likely the way the Liberals will go.
Even then, it is a compelling idea that will enable Trudeau to claim he is helping with the cost of everyday life.
The government will also attempt to take steps to persuade skeptics that cabinet is not one prolonged genderanalysis seminar.
After false dawns on the government’s vaunted 12-year, $180-billion infrastructure plan, the months leading up to the election are likely to see the completion of a number of very visible federally-funded transit, water and recreational infrastructure projects. Expect a Liberal MP with a giant cheque to appear some time soon in a town near you.
In the opinion of a good number of its own MPs, it’s not before time. Their sense is that the party leadership is on a different wavelength from voters who are making their own way in life and want to keep more of their income.
We’ll see in the fall if Trudeau agrees with some of his more pragmatic colleagues and is prepared to coursecorrect.
ONE OF THE THINGS THAT WE HEARD VERY CLEARLY FROM THE PROVINCES IS THAT THEY NEED A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF TIME TO GET THEIR BRICKS AND MORTAR STORES — THEIR ONLINE SALES — READY ... THIS IS SOMETHING THAT WE WANT TO GET RIGHT. — JUSTIN TRUDEAU