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No move by City Hall to block cannabis retail in city

The City of North Battleford is not going to prevent SLGA-licensed retail outlets for cannabis from setting up in the city.
marijuana

The City of North Battleford is not going to prevent SLGA-licensed retail outlets for cannabis from setting up in the city.

That is the indication following Monday night’s city council meeting when a decision on cannabis retail in the city was up for discussion.

Essentially, council went along with administration’s recommendation to accept the two retail outlets being allocated by Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority. Permits are to be issued by SLGA to private retailers later on in a lottery process.

But SLGA also gave municipalities until Feb. 28 to “opt out” of allowing cannabis retail in their communities. That would have required a council resolution to prohibit cannabis retail in the city limits.

However, there was clearly no appetite for that Monday night. In fact, the issue did not even come to a vote.

No resolution was put before council to prohibit cannabis retailing in the city, and no notice of motion was presented for such a resolution at a future meeting. The only vote was to receive the memo on the issue from administration.

It was a clear signal by council to direct administration to go ahead to the next step, which is zoning changes to allow cannabis retail outlets to set up in the city.

“I think the direction to administration is to proceed with the appropriate zoning and bylaw work for council consideration,” said Mayor Ryan Bater to reporters.

“There’s still a lot of work to do on this file. Today was simply about introducing the retail of cannabis on the agenda of council and see if there was an appetite to prohibit it, and we’ve heard nothing.”

While the issue of whether cannabis retail will be permitted is settled, not settled is where the outlets would be allowed to go.

The indication is administration is looking at zoning bylaw amendments that would allow cannabis retail outlets in commercial zones of the city. Those zones include the downtown and the commercial arterial areas.

For all of these areas, administration is proposing that cannabis retail be a “discretionary use,” that is, an application would need to come back to council for approval.

This would be similar to how liquor outlets are considered in their bylaws, said Puffalt.

Ultimately, however, what happens with the zoning will be up to council to decide at future meetings. 

On Monday, Bater made clear the issue before council that night was not a decision on whether cannabis would be illegal in the city of North Battleford.

“We don’t have that power as a municipality,” said Bater. “This is about permits for retail sale.”

Administration officials made clear they had no say in the decision to make marijuana legal. That decision was already made by the feds.

“We had next to no input into the decision made by the federal government to make the sale of cannabis legal in Canada,” said city manager Jim Puffalt.

“As such, we are suggesting to you this is a legal product that should be allowed to be sold in the city of North Battleford. If it’s not allowed here, they’ll go elsewhere.”

Puffalt noted the issue was similar to when video lottery terminals were introduced in the province. Puffalt was an administrator at the time and that was a similar controversial issue, where municipalities had little input into the actual decision but did have a similar opportunity to prohibit them.

In addition to recommending the two retail outlets be accepted, administration also recommended that deliberations regarding municipal regulation of cannabis “remain transparent in the best interests of our citizens,” according to a city memo on the topic dated Jan. 15. 

“We know it’s a very divisive issue for the municipality,” said Puffalt. “And so we want to give you as much information as we have.”

City director of planning and development Jennifer Niesink indicated that from her department’s standpoint, “we see it as an opportunity,” she said. Niesink added there was “significant interest” expressed already.

Puffalt further indicated to council they were “very much business-minded here,” and if “there was some way to get this done quickly we will,” he said.