Get on the pot
There are concerns Nova Scotia isn’t moving fast enough to deal with new standards regulating the legal sale of marijuana, and it could mean other provinces get a leg up.
Nova Scotia’s plans to get into the pot business are eerily reminiscent of a late-20th century, would-be-pusher – distinguished by stealth and uncertainty. No one knows what, if anything, the province has done to prepare for July 2018, when cannabis is legal in Canada, and the province’s vague statements are neither illuminating nor reassuring.
That’s in sharp contrast to New Brunswick, where preparations are public and well-advanced. Nova Scotia is behind Newfoundland too, where public consultations are complete and a report has been produced, and Prince Edward Island, which is conducting consultations now.
Premier Stephen McNeil promises to have the rules and regulations in place on time, but he’s been contradicted by Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health.
When the federal government introduced its legalization bill in April, Robert Strang said Nova Scotia would need at least two years to get ready, taking the province into the spring of 2019, almost a year after cannabis is legal.
Provinces determine how, where, when and who sells and uses legal pot. Any province that doesn’t have its act together on time will be out in the cold until it gets done. Consumers would have to buy pot online, or from illegal sources. There would be no provincial revenue from sales, and control would be limited to bare bones federal restrictions.
Nova Scotia’s handling of this file is amateurish. Three departments are involved along with the government’s political wheelhouse. All these outfits are running madly off in no discernible direction.
The premier says he wants a regional Atlantic approach to weed regulation, and claims the other three Atlantic premiers are in full agreement. Meanwhile, a New Brunswick working group produced and published a proposed model to govern all aspects of sale, use, and regulation of pot, which offers nothing to suggest it contemplates revision to accommodate the concerns of other provinces.
Further, New Brunswick plans to introduce legislation this fall, likely to mirror the working group’s proposals. So, if there’s going to be regional consistency, New Brunswick is calling the shots, with a legal age of 19, pot smoking limited like tobacco is now, and a Crown corporation as the sole retailer.
The dozens of storefront operations that have sprung up in anticipation of an open market would still be illegal and certainly shut down. Governments eliminate their competition.
It’s disappointing that Nova Scotia is the wrong end of the horse on the most visible opportunity in years to harmonize regulations across the region. The province has taken the lead in other efforts to co-ordinate economic regulations across Atlantic Canada.
It’s conceivable that Nova Scotia will get its ducks in a row before the deadline. The government promises public consultations in the fall, but admits it has a lot of work left to do.
The spring election in Nova Scotia has been suggested as an excuse for the province falling behind. That’s an admission that the government can’t walk and chew gum. With the legalization deadline looming, senior bureaucrats should have kept the work moving while the politicians were courting votes.
As with so many simple questions put to the Nova Scotia government, the answer to this one was mostly bosh.
“As we continue to work toward the legalization of cannabis, the health and safety of Nova Scotians, especially children and youth, is our top priority. Cannabis legalization is complex and will have significant impacts on provinces, territories and municipalities. There is a lot of work to do and many decisions to make in the coming months around the distribution model, health and safety, taxation, regional alignment and the legislative steps we need to take to be ready for July 2018. We will be looking at various options and will be consulting with Nova Scotians this fall.”
That penetrating glance into the obvious came 48 hours after the question – “where does Nova Scotia stand . . . in getting ready for legalization?” and supports the conclusion that the honest answer is “nowhere.”
Given that virtually all the work — except “regional alignment” — has been done by the neighbours, who will be “taking the legislative steps” while Nova Scotians are having their first say on the matter, a co-ordinated, consistent regional approach really means we’ll just let New Brunswickers decide the pot rules for Nova Scotians. The alternative is the slacker province — Nova Scotia — telling the keener province – New Brunswick — to back off. A kind of high school approach to interprovincial relations.