Weed permit changes prompt call for fairness

Jackie Kuntz says she reacted with “absolute disbelief” to the Saskatchewan government’s decision to remove the cap on the number of retail cannabis permits issued across the province.

Kuntz and her husband have been trying for years to obtain a retail liquor permit for their grocery store in Dilke, Sask. Now she’s questioning why there are different rules for alcohol and marijuana.

“If there’s an open market for pot, there needs to be an open market for liquor,” said Kuntz, whose campaign to get the retail liquor permit is backed by people across the Last Mountain Lake area north of Regina.

In a move that left at least one weed entrepreneur fearing a “free for all” that would snuff out independent business, the government announced plans this week to “move forward with an open market” by next year.

Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority Minister Gene Makowsky said Tuesday the decision will provide consumers with more choices and cut into the black market, which Statistics Canada estimates supplies 40 per cent of users.

Under the current regulations, only communities with 2,500 people or more qualify for retail cannabis permits; larger centres receive a set number of permits selected through a lottery, with a total of 51 available provincewide.

Retail liquor permits are now allocated using a similar system. The number of permits is determined by population, ranging from one for any community larger than 500 people to 40 for cities larger than 275,000.

While Dilke, a village of about 100 people off Highway 11 east of Chamberlain, does not qualify for a permit, Kuntz and others argue that the system does not take into account the large seasonal population in nearby resort villages.

“Is there a reason why government entities are denying rural residents access to products/services that are readily available to urban residents throughout the province?” Dilke Coun. Lavern Chipiska wrote in a 2018 letter to SLGA.

Makowsky described cannabis and liquor as different scenarios.

“The black market isn’t a factor in that area (alcohol) to speak of. Many decisions over the years have been made and piled upon each other. That made sense, limiting the number of opportunities on the liquor side,” he said.

SLGA did not respond to a request for comment. The government agency said last month there are no plans to change the rules. A government spokesman said the province will “continue to monitor the liquor market” once the cannabis changes are complete.

The head of the Saskatchewan Hotel and Hospitality Association said while a similar “wild west” for liquor permits would likely hurt the association’s members by devaluing their permits, the government could be sending a signal.

At the same time, Jim Bence said, the province might dismantle some of its more “Byzantine” liquor regulations but an “entrenched” sense of “social responsibility” surrounding alcohol will likely stop an Alberta-style free market from materializing.

“They believe if you sell booze dirt cheap then anarchy will reign,” Bence said, referring to SLGA’S “social reference pricing” for alcohol.

Kuntz said she does not understand how SLGA can “intelligently defend” different systems, especially when the province is advocating an open market for weed based in part on greater customer choice.

“There needs to be a level playing field,” she said.