Canada needs a federal-provincial drug deal
Quebec should lead battle on marijuana legalization costs, Michael Bryant says.
Just as Quebec got into the gun control business, it can get into the cannabis control business. The province may need to do just that to get the feds to pay their fair share of the cost of legalization.
As it stands, the Trudeau government gets to put the cart (legalization) before the horse (paying for regulation, enforcement and public health costs), thanks to Canada’s division of powers.
Quebec can use its leverage to force the feds to make provinces whole for an initiative that is singularly Justin Trudeau’s. Why Quebec? No other province has the capacity or the chutzpah to interfere with the 2018 Happy Canadabis Day that ushers in legalization. Only a large province has the clout to browbeat Ottawa on this topic. And of the large provinces, only Quebec has the political will to do it.
There is a long tradition of Quebec going its own way on matters of fiscal federalism. The same is often true for British Columbia and Alberta, but that’s not happened to date on cannabis, and I can’t see those NDP governments messing with Ottawa on this issue. Ontario should have, but didn’t have, the political will to fight Stephen Harper on gun control; it’s not going to force Trudeau’s hand on cannabis. Besides, Ontario already showed its cards last week with its Law and (Sales) Order cannabis policy.
How would Quebec do it? The Supreme Court of Canada has allowed provinces time and again to share constitutional jurisdiction with the feds provided they don’t, in essence, over-rule the federal law.
Quebec could so heavily regulate everything from consumption to manufacturing that Trudeau’s promise ends up being hollow in his home province. Or they can foil national distribution of cannabis by restrictive transportation
No province but Quebec can make Trudeau blink on the fiscal federalist costs of cannabis.
guidelines in Quebec. A Cannabis Checkpoint Charlie in Quebec could substantially alter the economics of legalization.
Why would Quebec do that? To avoid getting ripped off — short-changed for future costs the feds created through legalization, but won’t reimburse. Get the down payment now, through an annuity due.
Many will protest that there need be no costs to said implementation. In fact, offline, the feds routinely encourage stakeholders to seek funding from the cannabis industry, for whatever might be needed. Similarly, Ottawa has shown great esprit for cannabis capitalism, assuming that all implementation costs will be borne by the marketplace.
The problem with that thinking is twofold: the feds are deflecting responsibility, by failing to pay for their historic policy change. This is akin to what the Harper government did by legislating a flurry of mandatory minimum punishments, then letting provincial justice systems pick up the cost of more trials, more legal aid, more prosecutors, judges and court services. It was a mandatory ripoff of provincial coffers.
Second, Ottawa is assuming that the market response will not come with unmanageable costs for Quebec and their provincial siblings. When Big Weed behaves like Big Tobacco and Big Pharma, consumers’ health and wallet get exploited. Under our Constitution, it’s the provinces that are left with the massive health care tab for unforeseen marijuana costs.
In particular, we can expect that the opioid crisis will be quickly and tragically eclipsed by a cannabis dependence and substance abuse spike, if we leave it to the market to regulate itself. Even with strong provincial regulation, which only works with expensive surveillance and enforcement, there will be an uptick in adverse health effects to cannabis, the likes of which we do not yet know. At present, Ottawa expects Quebec (and all provinces) to pay for all that and then some.
No province but Quebec can make Trudeau blink on the fiscal federalist costs of cannabis. Hence, the need for a federal-provincial drug deal, where the dope doesn’t get delivered until Ottawa shows Couillard the money.