POT STORES ON AGENDA
City council set to decide
It’s legal. This region grows it. The city’s survey shows people want it. Windsor should allow marijuana retail stores.
We’ve already made the moral decision. Legalizing recreational pot was a key pledge in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s election platform, and we voted for him. As of last October, weed is as legal as tobacco and alcohol.
So it would be patronizing for Windsor to say we won’t allow stores to sell it. People should be able to buy it by any means legally available. If you don’t have a computer or a credit card, if you don’t want to wait for your online order from the Ontario Cannabis Store or if you simply want to talk to someone about the product, you should be able to go to a store. Chatham-Kent is the closest municipality with enough people to qualify for one of the first stores. We shouldn’t have to drive to Chatham-Kent. We market Windsor and Essex County as one region. Our top priority is economic diversification. And this region, the greenhouse capital of Canada, already producing a lot of pot and awaiting 12 large new commercial cannabis growing operations, is rapidly becoming the centre of a new, potentially bumper industry in Canada.
“Part of the future of our economic development,” Kingsville Mayor Nelson Santos called it. “On the cusp of a great opportunity,” said Leamington Mayor Hilda MacDonald.
So it would also be hypocritical for Windsor to say no. Eighty-one per cent of people here who responded to the city’s survey on the question supported retail sales. Their answer deserves some weight. Yeah, it’s been a trip. Recreational marijuana has been legal for only three months — after almost a century of prohibition. Under Ontario’s Liberals, a limited number of government stores, subject to a lot of consultation and restrictions, would have sold it.
Now, under the Conservatives, the private sector will own and operate stores, licensed and regulated by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission, starting April 1. The number of stores in Ontario will be limited to 25, but only until December. There’s no indication the number will be limited after that. The only restriction on location is that stores must be 150 metres from schools. They can go anywhere other stores are allowed.
No one wants weed stores sprouting everywhere, Windsor labelled Sin City again.
But marijuana is here to stay — edible cannabis products, concentrates and topicals will also become legal in October. And stores are coming. Windsor doesn’t need to first watch what happens in other cities that allow stores. There are enough cities in North America that already sell it to learn from.
The prudent decision is to opt in now because municipalities that do will get a lot more of the $40-million government fund to help offset expected costs plus a share of excise tax revenue in the first two years. That’s a lot of money to address potential problems like impaired driving, underage use, over-consumption, enforcing laws about where it can be consumed and odour. Offering a licensed, regulated product also provides something critical for consumers: “quality assurance,” as the report to city council calls it. In short, it’s safer than the black market. Some interesting politics are also riding on council’s vote Monday. Mayor Drew Dilkens opposes marijuana stores, but six of 10 councillors appear to support them. If Dilkens loses this vote — he has already admitted he probably will — it will be his second loss on a significant issue since the new council started last month. He opposed adding fluoride to city water again, but council voted decisively 8-3 to do it.
Mayors have only one vote, but they still need to show they can work with their councils and achieve consensus on important issues. While fluoride and pot stores aren’t issues council faces regularly, they are significant. It’s early, but these two votes illustrate how different the new council is.
“What you see is a very significant shift in philosophy,” said former councillor Bill Marra, noting the previous council voted 8-3 to stop adding fluoride to water.
“The obvious conclusion,” he said, “is that the real block voting that existed with the last council is a thing of the past.”
The question is what happens when councillors, many of whom made promises worth millions during the election, debate the 2019 budget starting next month.