No marijuana store for Peterborough, yet

Peterborough is not among the first Ontario cities to get a government-run marijuana store.

Ontario has named the first 14 cities where it will set up the legal marijuana stores by July 2018.

The Liquor Control Board of Ontario, which will run the shops through a subsidiary, said Friday the stores will be located in Barrie, Brampton, Hamilton, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Mississauga, Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Vaughan and Windsor.

Taras Natyshak, the Ontario NDP’s community safety and corrections critic, blasted Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government on Friday for ignoring Peterborough.

“Today’s list of 14 communities slated for retail cannabis locations together with Kathleen Wynne’s cannabis bill is a really disappointing package, and it leaves Ontarians with many more questions than answers,” Natyshak stated.

“Forty retail locations cannot possibly serve the demand in a province the size of Ontario. By failing to locate retail outlets in places like Niagara, Brantford, Peterborough, Cornwall, Sarnia, and North Bay and leaving large communities like Toronto, Hamilton and Ottawa underserved, it’s clear that Kathleen Wynne doesn’t get it. By severely restricting retail access to cannabis, her plan won’t put a dent in organized crime or stop the flow of unregulated cannabis to the market.

“And this announcement makes it obvious that she has once again failed to properly consult municipalities.”

The decision to bypass Peterborough in the first round comes even though pro-marijuana advocates have staged annual 420 rallies in Victoria Park every April 20 and city police raided an unlicensed downtown marijuana store several times last year.

The LCBO said its representatives, along with staff from Ontario’s Ministry of Finance, will meet with the chosen municipalities in the coming weeks to determine the exact locations.

The Ontario government said it will be identifying more locations for its first batch of 40 stores but notes that all consumers will be able to access cannabis through an online retail website.

The province plans to set up about 150 standalone cannabis stores by 2020.

Last week, Finance Minister Charles Sousa wrote municipal leaders and said Ontario’s store rollout aims to achieve the right geographic distribution across the province and to reduce the number of illegal marijuana dispensaries that have opened since the federal government announced it will legalize marijuana next summer.