Opposition: Nova Scotia government dragging heels
With the release of Ontario’s marijuana legalization framework on Friday, Nova Scotia’s opposition is concerned the provincial government is dragging its heels.
The first province to have constructed a comprehensive legalization plan, Ontario’s framework includes plans to open 150 standalone stores, and to have the province’s liquor control board oversee all recreational pot sales.
Ottawa will legalize pot by July 2018 but has left it up to the individual provinces to design their own distributions.
So far, the Nova Scotia government has been tight-lipped on its plans surrounding legalization, but Progressive Conservative Pictou West MLA and opposition justice critic Karla MacFarlane said they need to start talking.
“Right now, many provinces are way ahead of us on this and I would say we have tons of questions but we have no answers. We have nothing to go on right now and it’s very disappointing,” MacFarlane said.
In June, Nova Scotia Finance Minister Karen Casey said the province would hold public consultations in late summer or early fall on the issue, but MacFarlane said there’s been no update on those since.
When asked, the provincial Department of Justice would not provide any information on when Nova Scotians can expect some information on the province’s plans, or if Nova Scotia is looking to other provinces to draft their regulations.
Department spokeswoman Sarah Gillis said the province has “a lot of work to do and many decisions to make in the coming months” in order to be ready for legalization by 2018, and said the government will be looking at various options and will be consulting with Nova Scotians this fall.
In April, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Robert Strang said the province would need at least a two-year period to get legalization right.
“I really thought we would be going into the fall session with some sort of start of legislation but I don’t know if you can do that without any consultations, so this is something that looks like we we will not deal with until the spring session,” MacFarlane said.
“That only gives us a couple of months to roll out for 2018, so I’m concerned.”
Meanwhile, some pot advocates in Nova Scotia are urging the government to not follow in Ontario’s footsteps when crafting legislation. Diandra Phipps is the manager for eastern Canada with National Access Cannabis — a medical cannabis information and advocacy organization — and works out of their location in Halifax.
With police in Nova Scotia cracking down on the slew of illegal pot shops that have popped up, Phipps said there need to be regulations in order to ensure quality and safety, but said relegating all sales to a Crown corporation is not the answer.
Not allowing a private sector to participate in the recreational cannabis will allow the the black market to thrive, Phipps said.
“A hybrid model is something I think our government and our province would respond really well to and it would allow for this underground market to be regulated,” she said. Phipps pointed out that unlike alcohol, the thriving underground cannabis economy comes with a very strong culture that would likely take issue if the cannabis crusaders that have fought for legalization are the ones that get shut out, pushing people to continue to buy from the black marker.