Premier coy on how marijuana will be retailed after legalization

CALGARY Premier Rachel Notley won’t say which way her NDP government is leaning when it comes to sales of legal cannabis, but she insists the province is carefully weighing the merits of both the public and private-sector options.

Under its policy framework unveiled last week, the NDP will allow recreational marijuana to be sold only in stand-alone stores once it is legalized next year, but the government is still weighing whether to set up a system of government owned and operated stores, or leave retail to the private sector.

Speaking to reporters Friday in Calgary, Notley said the government has reached no conclusion on what she called “a big decision,” and said there are numerous factors at play in its deliberations.

“One of the issues there to balance is public safety and quality control in terms of keeping the product going to the people who should legally have it, versus getting it out the door as quickly as we can,” she said.

“Going the route of the private sector meets the latter objective, going the route of the publicly-managed system — it might be argued — meets the former.”

Notley acknowledged that tight timelines are also an issue in the government’s choice.

The federal Liberal government has set July 1, 2018, for meeting its promise of legalized recreational cannabis and the NDP government intends to decide on the vehicle for retail sales ahead of presenting legislation in the fall sitting of the legislature, which starts at the end of this month.

Alberta, which has not had public liquor stores since privatization in the 1990s, would face the risk of substantial upfront costs in setting up government-owned cannabis stores, though they could end up bringing in more public revenue in the long run, says the government.

Jason Kujath, the president of 51st Parallel Life Sciences — a company aiming to both produce and sell cannabis in Alberta when the product is legalized — said there is significant concern that the Notley government will choose the public model for retail.

“It won’t create the access that wipes out the black market,” he said in an interview Friday.

“Second, in a time when Alberta needs to ... foster entrepreneurship and create jobs and do so in an economic activity environment, it doesn’t make sense to invest (public) money to set up infrastructure here.”

Kujath estimates setting up a system of government owned and operated cannabis stores would cost around $1.2 billion.

One of the main proponents of a public system, the Alberta Federation of Labour, has said that government owned stores would create higher-quality jobs with unionized staff and would be safer for employees and the public.