Municipalities groups help members prepare for legalization of cannabis

Saskatchewan’s local governments have some direction on how to navigate cannabis legalization, thanks to a new guide produced in part by the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities and Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association.

Along with municipalities from other provinces, SUMA and SARM submitted policy feedback to the national Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), which compiled the Municipal Guide to Cannabis Legalization.

Sean McKenzie, senior policy adviser for SUMA, calls it a “crowdsourced” guide on how to approach cannabis zoning, bylaws and retail locations — which have been “fairly major concerns” from SUMA’s member municipalities.

SARM president Ray Orb said his organization’s members have also had concerns about where to situate cannabis retailers and production facilities — not locating them too close to a school, for example.

However, SARM’s biggest concern has been around enforcement. RCMP enforces traffic in most rural areas, and Orb worries about when RCMP officers are temporarily removed for cannabis-enforcement training.

“In some areas across the province there’s already a shortage of RCMP officers, so we think that’s going to kind of exacerbate the problem,” he said.

The FCM’s 48-page guide is divided into six sections, including land use management, business regulation and cannabis in the workplace.

The latter is another subject on Orb’s mind, as RMs have a lot of people who work outdoors and use heavy machinery. “We want to ensure that they’re not consuming, that it’s a safe workplace,” he said.

McKenzie said contributing cannabis-related policy to this report was “a bit of a struggle on our end because Saskatchewan was so late in getting out their cannabis framework.”

“We didn’t know what direction they were going to go and that prevented us from taking some of our own direction,” said McKenzie.

When it comes to public tobacco consumption, there is no overarching provincial framework. Municipalities create their own bylaws about where people can smoke or vape, which means a “patchwork” of municipal bylaws across the province.

The provincial government’s cannabis framework, released March 14, does include details about where people can legally consume cannabis, i.e. in a private place and not in public.

This saves municipalities from having to set those boundaries, while the FCM’s guide provides further direction.

“We’ve heard time and again from members that a lot of what they lack is capacity,” said McKenzie, “so they don’t necessarily have time to really research everything that should go into one of those bylaws, and they do look to other communities to help them develop that.”

McKenzie said SUMA is encouraging municipalities to explore cannabis legalization sooner rather than later, even though it seems the federal government’s anticipated July 1 deadline won’t be met.

Orb believes there will be a “time lag” in spite of a later deadline, since municipalities will have to pass new bylaws, which will then have to be approved by the province.

“It’s important for everyone to get their ducks in a row,” said McKenzie. “But yes, we’re certainly hearing more from those that will be having cannabis retailers.”

The provincial government will grant 51 retail cannabis permits in 32 communities.

The deadline to apply in the request for proposals was April 10.