Still unclear if cities can refuse pot shops

Province backtracks on stand that municipalities cannot opt out of cannabis stores

The Ontario government appeared to backtrack late Friday on an earlier statement that municipalities would be unable to opt out of hosting marijuana stores, raising more questions about the province’s readiness for the expected pot legalization next summer.

The issue came up earlier this week after a city of Richmond Hill committee unanimously endorsed a statement saying it was not willing to host one of the retail stores.

If a community is selected to host one of the marijuana shops, it can delay hosting the store but cannot completely opt out of having it, a spokesperson for Finance Minister Charles Sousa had told The Canadian Press earlier on Friday.

“As we roll out the next phase of stores, we will continue to engage with municipalities on an ongoing basis, including with those municipalities who may not be ready for a store opening in July 2018,” Jessica Martin said. “Ultimately, our goal through a controlled model is to ensure a safe and sensible framework for cannabis legalization.”

Martin said the government has consulted with municipalities about its retail model through the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

“Municipalities were involved in establishing the initial guidelines for siting stores, including achieving geographic distribution and combating illegal dispensaries,” she said.

But hours later, Martin said the government had not decided if municipalities will be able to opt out of hosting a cannabis store.

“The Liquor Control Board of Ontario will be addressing local concerns as they move forward with the siting process,” she said in a state- ment Friday night.

In October, Sousa wrote municipal leaders and said Ontario’s store rollout aimed to achieve the right geographic distribution across the province and to reduce the number of illegal marijuana dispensaries that have opened since the federal government announced its plan to legalize recreational marijuana.

The public would also be notified about the proposed store locations and would be asked to provide feedback directly to the LCBO, he said.

The LCBO hopes to open its first batch of 40 stores by July. The province plans to set up about 150 standalone cannabis stores by 2020.

Association of Municipalities of Ontario executive director Pat Vanini said Ontario’s plan to retail cannabis has been met with anxiety by some municipal leaders, who say the process has not provided them with enough information.

She said some communities do not want to be part of the first wave of government-run cannabis stores, in part because they still don’t know how they are going to recoup their costs for hosting the retail facilities.

“There is still, amazingly at this point in implementation, a lot of unknowns,” she said. The Richmond Hill community was notified in late November that the LCBO, which will run the shops through a subsidiary, was beginning work to site a store in the area. In a report from the city’s municipal staff, councillors were told they would likely only have a say over the zoning of a proposed location.

Vanini said this isn’t the first time municipalities have been forced to comply with a broad, top-down government policy. “Municipal governments have been through this willing/unwilling piece before with wind turbines,” she said.

“It took a while for the province to say ‘We’ll go where there are willing communities.’ ”