Not perfect, but cannabis law is ready: Charlebois
Bill will be tabled — and campaign on dangers launched — Thursday
Conceding it won’t be perfect and more time would help, the Couillard government is to table its long-awaited framework law on Thursday outlining how the legalization of cannabis will work in Quebec.
“Would it be better if we had an additional year? I think so,” Lucie Charlebois, the minister of rehabilitation, youth protection, public health and healthy living, told reporters Wednesday.
An extension would give her colleague, Finance Minister Carlos Leitão, the time to finalize negotiations with Ottawa over the distribution of future tax revenues.
And Quebec’s police could better prepare for the problems they believe will follow legalization.
The minister made the remarks in reaction to a Coalition Avenir Québec motion calling on the federal government to delay the legalization of marijuana by one year, to July 1, 2019. Members of the legislature spent the afternoon Wednesday debating the motion.
Charlebois conceded the delay is unlikely to be granted — the provinces have already been refused twice — and Quebec will be prepared one way or another.
On Wednesday, she advised the legislature of her plan to table a pot bill Thursday.
According to the official order paper, the bill — “An act to constitute the Société québécois du cannabis” — will enact the province’s new Cannabis Regulation Act.
Although the detailed content of the bill will only be available Thursday, certain elements are already known:
The legal age to buy and consume cannabis in Quebec will be 18; in neighbouring Ontario, it will be 19.
The government will maintain strict control over the distribution and sales of the product, setting up stores across Quebec to sell the product on site. The sales operation will be handled by the Société des alcools (SAQ). Ontario has opted for a similar system. There it will be the LCBO running the show, which will be operating 150 stand-alone stores.
There have been reports the SAQ will handle online sales, too.
You will not be allowed to grow it at home.
The government will have zero tolerance for driving under the influence, although the jury is out on how it will measure the level of the drug in the driver’s system.
The government is expected to model the rules governing consumption on existing tobacco regulations, which means citizens would have to respect a certain distance from public buildings and bars.
There are reports consumption will be banned on CEGEP and university campuses.
RELUCTANT ENTRY
Quebec is entering the pot business reluctantly. None of the political parties campaigned with plans to legalize weed in the last election.
And a round of consultations conducted by the government revealed Quebecers are more conservative about the idea than was originally thought.
Like the other provinces, Quebec has found itself scrambling to prepare the terrain for the legalization because the federal Liberals made it one of their central election promises.
The federal pot bill, C-45, which legalizes consumption and possession of cannabis, is still being studied by a House of Commons committee, but the Trudeau government wants to adopt it in time for cannabis to be legal in Canada by July 1, 2018.
The provinces feel that while Ottawa gets the glory of announcing the policy, they have inherited the costs and trouble of applying it. The list of negatives is long, from policing and social costs to the many unknowns on the health side.
On Wednesday at the same news conference, Leitão returned to the taxation question, repeating he and his provincial colleagues believe almost all the taxation revenue should come back to Quebec and the other provinces.
“Why should the federal government have any additional revenues when they have very few additional costs,” Leitão asked.
REVENUE
So far, Ottawa has only offered to split the revenue from the excise tax it plans to impose on weed. Charlebois’s bill is not expected to deal with that aspect of the issue. The government will handle pricing issues with regulations later.
The subject will be discussed at the next federal-provincial meeting of finance ministers in Ottawa on Dec. 12. Last week, Ottawa indicated pot revenues could total as much as $1 billion for the whole country.
“We are not even at the beginning of the start of discussions with Ottawa on this question,” Leitão said.
But there are still many questions. Quoting studies that show cannabis use can affect the evolution of young brains, the Coalition Avenir Québec opposition on Wednesday again called on the government to set the legal age at 21.
CAQ Leader François Legault repeated his view Quebec is going too fast.
“We’re not ready for such an important change in our society,” Legault said.
In response to concerns, Charlebois is expected to launch a massive public education campaign warning youth of the dangers of consumption at the same time she tables her bill.