City staff scrambled to prepare a bylaw regulating marijuana retail and get it to council on Monday.
With the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission announcing it was taking cannabis retail applications beginning this week, municipalities had little time to get their regulatory affairs in order.
Council gave first reading to a pair of bylaws that include detailed regulations touching on everything from the distance a marijuana shop can be located from schools, health facilities, liquor stores and recreation facilities to how security and odour must be handled are included in the bylaws.
No smoking, vaping or using cannabis in any other way will be allowed on the retail shop site. Drive-through marijuana retailers will not be allowed.
The bylaw also limits retail marijuana to commercially zoned areas, mostly along Gaetz Avenue and 67th Street and in the downtown. About 35 potential marijuana retail locations have been identified.
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The goal of the bylaws is to balance business opportunity while providing rules to manage clustering, limiting locations near sensitive areas, such as schools, and limiting the impact on property owners.
A public hearing has been set for April 16 in council chambers at city hall.
Mayor Tara Veer said it was critical that the city work quickly to establish rules specific to cannabis retailing otherwise applications would have been treated the same as any other retailer.
That could have meant potentially hundreds of cannabis retailers could have sprung up around the city.
Overseeing marijuana will be complicated, with three levels of government involved. The federal government will largely oversee production facilities, as well as sales of medical marijuana.
Retailers will be licensed by Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission. Before a licence is issued, a development permit must be approved by the municipality.
Veer and other council members were not impressed with how little time the federal government gave communities to prepare for a dramatic change such as legalized marijuana.
Coun. Tanya Handley called the timing “wrong and unfair” considering the scope of the proposed changes.
“I know we’re going to hear lots on this, both good and bad.”
Coun. Dianne Wyntjes said municipalities want to know how the promised cannabis revenue sharing will affect them.
“It will be an interesting conversation when the balance sheet is done and what comes back to us,” she said.
Many of the city’s proposed regulations are much tighter than those proposed by the province or Edmonton and Calgary. For instance, the province proposes no cannabis retail within 100 metres of a school. Calgary and Edmonton proposed 150 and 200 metres respectively.
Red Deer’s bylaw includes a 300-metre setback.
The province suggested a 10-metre setback from daycares. Red Deer proposes 300 metres.
pcowley@reddeeradvocate.com
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