City of Penticton still sorting out pot issues

Penticton and other communities aren’t likely to see fully-legal retail cannabis shops opening on Oct. 17.

Even though cannabis deregulation is still several weeks away, Mayor Andrew Jakubeit says there are still a lot of issues to sort out, like locations and number of shops. Penticton’s proposed cannabis framework answers a lot of those questions, but it has yet to be adopted by council as city policy.

“Logistically, I don’t see us having the ducks in a row and ready,” said Jakubeit. “We shouldn’t make a decision when there are still a lot of unknowns and we still haven’t finalized our business licence fee and a few other logistics and impacts.

“The focus has all been on locations and how many and the distribution side of things.”

Related: Bringing issues and community together

Even when the city’s policy and regulations are set, there will still be decisions to be made on individual businesses, like deciding which one to pick if a number want to be in the same area.

The province is already vetting applications, but local city councils will still have the opportunity to weigh in.

“There seems to be community support, so it is not that overly controversial, but if you have 20 applications for seven spots, that certainly attracts a fair bit of attention and requires a fair bit of deliberation before making a final decision,” said Jakubeit.

“You don’t want to rush into anything, because once they are there, they’re there. If it takes an extra month or two to get it right and get a comfort level amongst the council of the day and the community, I think we will do that.”

There’s also a conversation to have about what the deregulation is going to cost the city; a range of cost-creep is possible, from bylaw enforcement and RCMP to staff time spent on processing.

Related: City of Penticton working to develop pot sales regulations

“Right now, it’s a $2,500 (provincial) application fee. There hasn’t been enough discussion on what the business license fee would be,” said Jakubeit, noting that the city has to be able to justify the licence fee it sets. City hall, he explained can’t just set a high business licence fee in hopes of leveraging the new industry and getting as much as they can.

“We have to be able to back that up. And so that’s where the staff is starting a conversation with other communities as well to help gauge and anticipate how much extra bylaw is required,” said Jakubeit, adding that he expects the city’s bylaw enforcement will probably be in the nature of dealing with consumption in public places.

Related: Puff, puff, past the accident, gets arrested in Penticton

“We’re still sort of regulating what’s a fair and reasonable price for the business license that is going to capture any costs that we might endure, especially for the first few years as we fine-tune the regulations,” said Jakubeit.

The province has yet to commit to sharing the tax revenue from cannabis sales.

“At the end of the day, the municipalities and the regional districts are the ones that have to enforce and live with the unexpected consequences of this rolling out,” said Jakubeit, noting there could also be increased policing costs to the city, if the RCMP have to spend more time dealing with people driving under the influence.

Related: 14% of people admit to driving after smoking pot: Stats Canada

“If policing resources are tied up by someone who might be under the influence behind the wheel, that has an impact on our policing resources or their ability to handle other calls,” said Jakubeit.

“There are so many unknowns about how this marijuana deregulation is going to pan out and impact communities. It is still going to be a big discussion item,” said Jakubeit.