Cannabis facility has Strathcona County landowners worried
People in Strathcona County are concerned about a proposal to construct a medical marijuana and industrial hemp facility on land near their homes.
Canadian Rockies Agriculture has applied to put up nine buildings in the first phase of a project that includes greenhouses, processing and underground storage vaults on 30 hectares about 12 kilometres southeast of Josephburg.
The initial stage would employ 30 to 75 workers, with indoor space to grow up to 20,000 plants, a laboratory to make cannabis oils, extracts and edible by-products, lighting, motion detectors, and dugouts for water filtration and storage, according to a county information sheet.
Marijuana products can only be sold by mail or courier.
Within five years of finishing Phase 1, the company intends to expand the greenhouses, grow six hectares of industrial hemp outside, and add storage silos and a hemp research building, creating seasonal work for an extra 75 to 100 staff.
The company, which needs a producer’s licence from Health Canada before it can start operating, couldn’t be reached for comment.
Alberta has three licensed producers. Several companies are working to set up facilities in and around Edmonton.
But Amanda Kutz, who lives on a small farm next to the site, said Tuesday she and other neighbours weren’t told about the scheme and only learned about it when the company invited them to a midJuly barbecue.
“My house is 125 metres from the property line. My immediate concerns are security. There’s no precedent for this in Strathcona County … Will it increase crime?” she asked, adding there are 15 houses within 1.6 kilometres of the location.
“The facility itself is very secure … I just don’t know what’s going to protect the neighbouring properties from people possibly trying to access that property.”
Kutz, who organized a public meeting at the Heartland Hall Tuesday night to discuss the proposal, is also unsure whether the 20 staff vehicles expected for each phase and the four to eight daily shuttle-bus trips represent the actual amount of traffic that will be created.
The county considers the development intensive horticulture, which must be approved if it meets the proper regulations, so Kutz isn’t sure the facility can be stopped.
However, she wants councillors to look at changing land-use bylaws to ensure similar schemes receive more public scrutiny and go to industrial locations.
“It doesn’t belong in the area to which it’s being proposed. I don’t know the impact it’s going to have, and that’s the scary part. It’s unprecedented in Strathcona County,” she said, adding she doesn’t like the prospect of taking prime soil out of agricultural use.
“I’m not against medical marijuana here in the least. I have concerns about the location (and) the impact it’s going to have on our community with no consultation.”