MARINE ATLANTIC PREPARING FOR POT LEGALIZATION

Crown corporation expected to release new policy soon

Marine Atlantic, like many large corporations, is preparing for and struggling to get policies in place prior to the legalization of cannabis.

There are “concerns for both crew and passengers,” says Marine Atlantic’s David Frew, vicepresident of corporate strategy and human resources.

“That’s important to us given the nature of the service that we provide and where we provide it,” Frew said during Sydney Port Days recently.

The ferry service operates four vessels on two routes between North Sydney and Newfoundland. Last year, it carried 328,000 passengers and 95,000 commercial vehicles.

“The North Atlantic is nowhere you want to be unsafe. Safety is the priority for us, so we do have concerns about the legalization of marijuana and what that might mean for passengers and customers.”

Frew said he doesn’t believe the federal government will meet its target of legalization by July 1. Instead, he estimated, laws making recreational cannabis legal would likely happen “closer to Christmas.”

“But nevertheless, we’ve started preparing procedures, policies and practices that we will put in place when the day comes that it is implemented,” he said.

Marine Atlantic is expected to release those plans publicly within the “coming weeks,” Frew added.

A lack of a standard threshold to determine how much pot is too much isn’t available to employers.

Each company is left to determine how to quantify when an employee is considered stoned, and many organizations have inadequate policies to address the complex issue, according to Nadine Wentzell, a Halifax-based consultant who has spent the past 25 years building industryspecific workplace alcohol and drug policies and programs.

In an interview with the Post last month, Wentzell said many employers are “very nervous” about cannabis use right now because there had not been human resources policies already in place.

And it’s not as simple as an employer randomly testing employees for drug use in occupations where safety is always in the foremost of managers’ minds.

National rules for random drug and alcohol testing were established following a 2013 decision by the Supreme Court of Canada. Employers must be able to prove there’s pervasive abuse of a substance in order to legally enforce a drug-testing program.