Two pot stores to open, 8-9 soon to follow
Calgarians will only have two local options to buy cannabis legally on Wednesday, but the city says more pot shops are on the way.
Matt Zabloski, the City of Calgary’s cannabis legalization project lead, said more than 10 stores have been issued city business licences at the municipal level.
“From our standpoint, those are ready to go,” said Zabloski, adding that 10 or 11 stores have met all the required municipal approvals.
“They’ve also met the first due diligence check from the province and the only thing that’s really standing in their way to open at this point would be (Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission) licensing,” he said. “It’s really just the province kind of getting their final inspections done and getting the licence from the AGLC.”
The AGLC says that 17 stores will open across the province Wednesday, when recreational cannabis becomes legal across Canada.
Four20 Premium Market at Macleod Trail and Southland Drive S.W. and Nova Cannabis in Willow Park Village will be ready to go in Calgary, along with 12 stores in the Edmonton area and three in Medicine Hat.
Zabloski said Monday that preparations for legalization are complete from a city perspective following a two-year process.
But one element that’s holding Calgary back from having more retail cannabis stores ready to go this week is its appeals process, which provides citizens and communities with the ability to appeal a decision in the three weeks that follow an approval or refusal of a development permit.
That process is well underway, with the city ’s subdivision and development appeal board actively reviewing many of those cases, according to Zabloski.
There have been 101 appeals, thus far. Of the 119 applications approved by the city, 26 have been appealed. The city said that 75 of the 116 applications it has refused have also been appealed.
“It’s really walking the balance, the idea that there’s concerns from a variety of sides,” Zabloski said when asked about the biggest challenges the city has faced in getting ready for cannabis legalization.
“There’s also a lot of expectations out there in terms of the industry and being able to accommodate that, so I would say it’s really walking that balance.”
Zabloski said the city is also looking to crack down on enforcement, as it anticipates more resources will be needed in the coming months. He said the city has looked elsewhere to jurisdictions like Colorado, where recreational cannabis has been legal since 2014, in order to prepare.
“We certainly heard from those jurisdictions that there was a large increase in calls, whether that has to do with people being more public about their consumption or people who might not be entirely happy with the idea of legalization having some ability to call in a complaint about that,” he said. “And to that end, we have … looked at the potential for additional bylaw officers on the street in order to respond to that.”
He said the city has requested eight additional bylaw officers to help deal with the potential for increased cannabis-related violations.
“We do have plans for officers on the ground to address issues that are coming up as a result of legalization,” Zabloski said. “But certainly long-term, it is something that we do anticipate the need to have additional police on the ground.”
But Zabloski said no fixed strategy can account for every problem Calgary might face as it attempts to tackle the issue for the first time.
“That’s something we’ve heard from across the gamut of other jurisdictions is the idea of needing to be able to remain flexible and responsive as far as what we put forward,” he said. “Everything that we’re putting out there right now is our best guess of what’s going to happen, but that being said we’re perfectly aware of the fact that we can’t anticipate everything, and as such, we’re definitely going to be continuing to monitor this.”