Michelle and Doug Sikora are a big step closer to having a storefront location for their S&M Medicinal Sweet Shoppe, but it won’t be in Sechelt as they’d hoped. The couple have been issued a business licence by the Town of Gibsons and plan to set up shop in the 700 block of Gibsons Way in early 2017.
S&M is the second marijuana dispensary to be granted a licence by the Town in recent weeks. The Healing Hut, run by Brenda Haeber and Mike Harris, opened on Marine Drive last month.
Mayor Wayne Rowe is careful to point out the licences are for retail stores, not for marijuana dispensaries specifically.
“We don’t really have the ability to licence for that specific purpose, nor do we have the ability to shut it down if it’s just a retail store,” he said. “At the present time we view it as a law enforcement matter [if a retailer sells an illegal product].”
Rowe said he expects the federal government will introduce a legalization scheme that leaves the details to provinces and municipalities, and that’s when Gibsons will likely create a business licence category for cannabis sales.
The Sikoras say the Gibsons opportunity opened up through the combination of a supportive landlord and Town officials willing to issue a licence. It also came after three years of trying, and failing, to get a licence from the District of Sechelt where they’ve operated as a home-based business.
“We’re federally registered, we’re provincially registered. We’ve been waiting for our local governments to recognize us,” said Doug Sikora.
Michelle Sikora said she feels Sunshine Coast residents are ready to support a locally based cannabis industry – both growing and retail – within whatever regulations Ottawa comes up with. She’s also confident those regulations will include some sort of grandfathering, which is one of the reasons they want to open a store. The Sikoras also said despite the expected legalization of recreational use, S&M plans to continue focusing on clients looking for medicinal cannabis.
Mike Harris of The Healing Hut said an interest in the potential medicinal applications of cannabis made a dispensary a natural choice when he and Haeber wanted to start their own business.
“I believe in it a lot,” Harris said. “I believe it helps people’s personalities, I believe it helps people medically. It’s a pretty incredible plant.”
Haeber and Harris looked at several communities, including more than a dozen on Vancouver Island, but decided Gibsons was the best fit, partly because of family connections and partly because the Town was open to issuing a business licence.
“They’re in the process of developing their bylaws to cater to dispensaries, but they’re not there yet. They take it on a case-by-case basis,” Haeber said. “We’re hoping to roll with the regulations as they come out, whatever they are.”
The Sikoras, and Haeber and Harris, told Coast Reporter they feel they’ve got a good working relationship with Town officials.
Doug Sikora said it’s been a very different experience than trying to get a Sechelt business licence. “We tried to do it in the most respectful, community-minded way and we still got abuse and harassment, we feel, by the RCMP and neighbours, but also by the District [of Sechelt].”
Haeber said The Healing Hut is making an effort to stay low key, and fit in with the feel of Gibsons Landing. “A big one was to keep the neighbours happy, keep our local community happy.”
Rowe said the Town has heard a few concerns since The Healing Hut opened, the most serious being people smoking their purchases too close to neighbouring businesses, but that concern was addressed quickly.
The dispensary hasn’t had any direct contact with Sunshine Coast RCMP. “They’re keeping an eye on us,” Haeber said. “We see them drive by and look in, and we’re fine with that. We expect that. But, because we have a business licence, we are treated like a business and if there are problems it will be the bylaw officer dealing with us.”
The Sikoras, meanwhile, are still dealing with the legal fallout from an RCMP raid on their home-based Selma Park dispensary in November 2015, but they said they don’t expect it to interfere with their plans for the shop in Gibsons. They have upcoming court dates on criminal charges and their Charter challenge of the RCMP’s actions.
The licensing of S&M Medicinal Sweet Shoppe and The Healing Hut brings the total number of cannabis-related businesses in Gibsons to three. The Rainforest Compassion Club was granted a Gibsons business licence in early 2015.
Town CAO Emanuel Machado said, “We’ve been trying to find the right balance between the current policy that we have, and working with those folks, and trying to be firm where we need to be from an enforcement perspective, but also recognize that [federal] policy is changing much faster than we can adequately respond.”
How that federal policy will look could become clearer with a soon-to-be-released report from a special task force, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised eyebrows with recent comments to the editorial board of the Toronto Star newspaper, suggesting local authorities should be enforcing existing laws on marijuana sales.
Other than the raid on S&M, that hasn’t happened here, despite three storefront dispensaries operating in Sechelt. Sunshine Coast RCMP’s commander, Staff Sgt. Vishal Mathura, told the regional policing committee in May that he would prefer to see dispensaries dealt with through business licence bylaws.
