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Gibsons on track to have Coast’s first fully legal cannabis retailer

Councillors in Gibsons are working their way through applications from four prospective cannabis retailers, including one that’s now close to getting a provincial sales licence.
cannabis
If approved, Gibsons Greens at 416 Marine Drive will be the fourth cannabis retailer in the town.

Councillors in Gibsons are working their way through applications from four prospective cannabis retailers, including one that’s now close to getting a provincial sales licence.

The Town’s current strategy for cannabis shops has been to officially prohibit them in all zones, which forces the owners to either apply for a temporary use permit (TUP) or a site-specific rezoning.

Before any of the four applications came forward at the Nov. 20 committee and council meetings, Coun. Aleria Ladwig said she also wanted to make sure work gets started as soon as possible on a cannabis store bylaw.

Ladwig said Gibsons should “follow the same type of procedure that other municipalities seem to be putting in place … looking at things such as appropriate zoning designation for these stores, proximity to schools [and] the number of stores.”

Council voted at committee to have staff draft a report, with Mayor Bill Beamish noting that the Town’s approach also needs to include community consultation.

The first of the TUP applications up for consideration was from S&M Medicinal Sweet Shoppe, which is unusual because the owners do not want a provincial retail licence and want instead to serve medicinal cannabis customers only with a product line that includes edibles.

Beamish said he was reluctant to support a permit for retailers who aren’t in line for provincial approval, but S&M co-owner Michelle Sikora told the committee that they were hoping a pending court ruling would open the path for storefront dispensaries to be part of the legal medical cannabis regime.

Coun. Stafford Lumley said he supported granting S&M a TUP, but suggested shortening the term to one year. “During that temporary use time, things could work out in their favour – they could apply and get all the licences they need – and then when we find out how our bylaw goes, they could completely comply,” he said.

The committee voted to move the S&M application forward, but ran out of time to consider a second new application.

The backers of Gibsons Greens are hoping to set up shop on the lower floor of 416 Marine Drive. Their application will now be considered at the Dec. 4 committee of the whole meeting.

At the regular council meeting that evening, two other cannabis retailers were on the agenda.

Councillors were asked to consider final approval of the TUP for the Rainforest Compassion Club at 703 Gibsons Way and weigh in on the referral from the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch on a provincial licence for the Healing Hut at 442 Marine Drive, which plans to rebrand as Coastal Bay Cannabis.

One of the concerns around the Rainforest application was that the location falls just inside a 300-metre buffer from schools requested by School District No. 46.

Director of planning Lesley-Ann Staats told council that strictly honouring the buffer zone “would ultimately impact the Town’s economic opportunities along two of the Town’s core commercial corridors on North Road and Gibsons Way.”

The other concern was odour, which the Town hopes to deal with by requiring a filtration system.  

The TUP was approved with a two-year term.

For Coastal Bay Cannabis, council voted to recommend approval of a provincial licence, meaning the company is now close to becoming the first fully legal shop in the town under the province’s non-medicinal cannabis rules.

“Congratulations. You’re the first ones to go through the minefield of our process and help us to learn,” Beamish told the owners. “We hope you’ll work with us when we go through and develop policy, because your experience is the experience that we have [so far] and it’s very important to us.”