Fort Erie to consider cannabis stores

Will Fort Erie be in or out when it comes to allowing the sale of cannabis in the town?

Town politicians will be presented with a staff report outlining the town’s options at tonight’s council-in-committee meeting; residents will have a chance to speak to the matter at a public meeting prior to that.

The provincial government will be awarding licences to 25 stores through the Alcohol Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) in first go around. Seven of those licences will be awarded in the designated “West Region” that includes Dufferin, Wellington, Hamilton, Haldimand-Norfolk, Brant, Waterloo, Perth, Oxford, Elgin, Chatham-Kent, Lambton, Middlesex, Huron, Bruce, Grey Manitoulin and Niagara.

Retail stores will only be able to sell cannabis and cannabis-related products.

For the first issuing of licences, only municipalities with a population of 50,000 will be considered — with Fort Erie’s population of 30,710 (as of 2016), no applications will be considered.

The town would be considered when the province moves to open allocation; that will come after it has analyzed supply and demand issues.

Since the province began selling cannabis online last October, there have been supply problems that resulted in longer than normal waits for orders to be filled.

Welland became the first municipality in Niagara to opt in at its general committee meeting on Jan. 8. Wainfleet, meanwhile, decided to pass, and would not qualify initially.

Municipalities have until Jan. 22 to decide to opt in and take advantage of financial incentives being offered by the province. If Fort Erie were to opt out, it could decide to opt back in at any time, but would not qualify for the financial incentives.

Today’s meeting begins at 6 p.m.