Feds willing to give more pot tax revenue to provinces

The Trudeau government is willing to give provinces and territories a bigger share of the revenue from a federal excise tax on cannabis, provided that the extra money is devoted to helping municipalities cope with the impact of legalizing recreational pot.

The feds have proposed giving provincial and territorial governments half of the estimated $1-billion annual excise tax take once weed becomes legal next July.

But The Canadian Press has learned that Finance Minister Bill Morneau and his officials have signalled a willingness to increase that share when they sit down next week with their provincial and territorial counterparts.

The discussions have been taking place in preparation for a meeting of federal, provincial and territorial finance ministers Dec. 10-11, where the issue of cannabis taxation is expected to be front and centre.

Any increase in the provincial share will obviously mean less for federal coffers. But precisely how much less than 50 per cent the federal government is willing to accept has not yet been revealed.

A government official close to the discussions, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, said it’s too early to float specific numbers. The final decision will rest on an assessment of the needs of the municipalities - and a willingness by provinces and territories to agree to devote the extra revenue to those needs, the official said. Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa agreed that municipalities need to be recompensed for costs associated with marijuana legalization.

“I’ve always said all along that the municipalities and the province need to get a proper share to cover those costs,” he said Monday. “We have a lot of out of pocket (expenses) right at the start ... that needs to be recovered. So we will work closely, we want to make sure that municipalities are covered as well.” However, before agreeing to anything, Sousa said he needs to see a breakdown of the costs that are going to be incurred and how much of those costs the federal government is prepared to assume. He said he expects to hear more on that front at the finance ministers’ meeting next week.