Alberta provides $11M to cities for pot preparation

Iveson blasts province for failing to take mayors’ concerns seriously

Alberta will be providing $11.2 million over two years to help municipalities with policing and regulation after recreational cannabis becomes legal on Wednesday.

Finance Minister Joe Ceci said the funding will go to municipalities that pay for policing costs and have more than 5,000 residents.

“We know much of the impacts of cannabis legalization will be felt locally,” Ceci said in a Monday news conference in Calgary.

However, Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson said he is “furious” the province’s new municipal cannabis transition program does not take the concerns of cities seriously.

“The province and the feds are going to make heaps of money off of this over several years and we’re the ones who have real costs on the ground,” he said Monday.

Iveson estimated legalized cannabis will cost the city about $12 million per year for functions like regulation and policing, and will receive about $1 million.

Without additional provincial funding, the city’s choices are to hire fewer police and bylaw enforcement officers, or raise property taxes, he said.

The city has already raised property taxes once to a pay for the costs of legalization and Iveson is unwilling to support another hike.

The provincial government, which will receive 75 per cent of the excise tax on cannabis sales, expects to have a net loss during the first two years of legalization due to startup costs.

VILLAGES, RMS LEFT OUT

Many municipalities that will pay for regulation, enforcement, and education in the wake of legal cannabis are ineligible for the funding, said Barry Morishita, president of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA).

Fifty-two municipalities will be eligible for the grants, excluding most villages and rural municipalities.

For those eligible, the $11.2 million isn’t nearly enough to cover costs, Morishita said, and the provincial government is requiring they submit grant applications and followup reports to access the money.

“It makes no sense. We create all this work for nothing,” said Morishita, who is also the mayor of Brooks.

The AUMA wants the province to give 70 per cent of the excise tax it collects on cannabis to municipalities to cover the front-line costs, and provide $30 million to prepare for legalization.

The Rural Municipalities of Alberta also issued a statement Monday saying the new funding program “raises significant concerns as to the effective enforcement of bylaws guiding recreational cannabis use.”

It’s the municipalities that are developing and enforcing bylaws, creating land-use restrictions for production facilities, and drafting rules about where people can and can’t consume marijuana, the statement said.

Association president Al Kemmere said the provincial government should share half of the excise tax with municipalities.

In an email on Wednesday afternoon, Ceci said Alberta is one of just three provinces — alongside Quebec and Ontario — that has committed to help municipal governments offset legalization costs.