Growing problem

It’s a time-honoured tradition in Canadian governance: higherlevel governments pass problems on down to the governments below them.

And at the bottom of the pile, hamstrung by federal or provincial legislation, sit the nation’s municipalities.

That’s as true with new laws legalizing cannabis use as anything else — which is why the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) is already suggesting ways to deal with the fallout.

In a new cannabis guidebook for Canadian municipalities, the FCM identifies what it thinks will cause the most problems: the four plants that individuals will be allowed to grow at home for personal use.

“The issue of how to regulate home cultivation of cannabis will apply to the greatest number of properties,” the FCM writes. “Of all the regulations that might be considered in relation to the legalization of cannabis, this one has the potential to generate the greatest number of enforcement complaints.”

There are a number of reasons for their concern. First, “Residential buildings are usually not designed or constructed to accommodate cannabis production. The mechanical systems in nonindustrial buildings are usually not appropriate to support this kind of use without modifications (that are often carried out by unqualified persons and without permits). The location of dwellings where cannabis is being grown exposes neighbours to odours and other impacts.”

Part of that is the problems that have already surfaced with illegal growing operations, which have exposed homeowners and neighbours to slipshod construction, poor electrical modifications and fire hazards, along with mould and air quality issues.

There’s also the fact that even though there has been a four-plant maximum for personal use medical marijuana growers, enforcement of the limit in the number of plants has been sporadic to non-existent.

Then there’s the problem of how to quantify complaints: “As local governments anticipate an increase in nuisance complaints with legalized cannabis, odour issues rank among their top concerns — and these are notoriously difficult to regulate and remediate. Because odours are hard to quantify objectively in terms of strength or character, setting regulatory standards is challenging.” Among the solutions? Passing bylaws requiring home pot growers to register with municipalities and pay enough in fees to cover the registration system — and then using municipal enforcement officers to address complaints and to ensure the four-plant limit is observed.

“A registration system could help identify where cannabis production is actually occurring — though it is worth evaluating whether citizens would be likely to comply with such a requirement,” the FCM writes.

There are going to be neighbourhood conflicts about growing and smoking weed — and solving them is not going to be as simple as handing a baggie of home-grown weed over the backyard fence and saying, “Hey, neighbour, chill out.”

The FCM is absolutely right: the time for municipalities to think about dealing with those conflicts is now.