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Gibsons ‘hitting pause’ on licences for dispensaries

Marijuana

Gibsons council wants staff to hold off on business licences for marijuana dispensaries until there’s more detail from the federal and provincial governments.

The Town issued licences for a pair of storefront marijuana dispensaries in November and December, and one for a compassion club in 2015. The approach has been to treat them as retail stores, and leave the question of whether they’re selling an illegal product to RCMP to handle as a law enforcement issue.

Coun. Stafford Lumley, who owns a restaurant in the Landing, said he was “miffed” when a dispensary opened in Lower Gibsons, and thinks the Town needs to consider zoning rules to limit where dispensaries can set up shop before granting business licences.

“My issue isn’t with the dispensing of marijuana, my issue is where these marijuana dispensaries attach themselves to Gibsons – that’s all,” Lumley told the Dec. 20 committee of the whole meeting. “I just don’t think they fit into the landscape of Lower Gibsons.”

He put forward a motion instructing staff not to issue any more business licences for prospective dispensaries pending a report to council on the possible regulation of locations and zoning.

Assessing business licence applications is done by Town staff, without referring to council, but CAO Emanuel Machado said on this issue they’d welcome some direction.

“What I hear from Coun. Lumley in terms of a moratorium on further licences until a policy direction is clarified is certainly something we support strongly… I suspect it wouldn’t be out of the question to get more applications.”

Town planner Andre Boel said there aren’t any applications pending at the moment.

Mayor Wayne Rowe said now that the federal task force on cannabis legalization has released its report, the Town probably won’t have to wait much longer for clear guidelines from senior governments.

“We’re expecting the federal government will bring in some legalization early in 2017,” he said. “As we suspected, they’re basically punting the regulation down at least to the provinces, and possibly down to the municipalities, so the province is going to have a role to play much like they do in the sale of liquor.”

Coun. Jeremy Valeriote said he’d be willing to back Lumley’s motion to put a hold on any new licences.

“I’d be in support of hitting pause on this. I don’t think we have to be on the leading edge of something that’s changing this quickly. I think we should look at our options.”

The motion passed unanimously at the council meeting later that evening (with Coun. Charlene SanJenko absent).