The City is hosting a Your Voice Night, where people from the community will have the chance to share their opinions on marijuana regulations, among other updated bylaws.
City Council will be bringing up several pieces of legislation for the public to voice their concerns on including, the Smoking Bylaw, the Community Standards Bylaw, the Business Licence Bylaw and the Traffic Bylaw. Mayor Gerald Aalbers says that this is the perfect opportunity for residents to hear the updates before they are finalized.
“Cannabis has so many far reaching affects, they affect driving, they affect consumption, they affect retailing and they affect bylaws. The bylaws, every one of them were touched and that’s why cannabis was kind of the anchor item that brought us to this point, so that’s why we had several bylaws that were updated.”
Marijuana is set to be legalized in Canada by summer 2018 after it passed a second reading in the senate Thursday.
City Councillor Jonathan Torresan says that one of the things he’d like to get feedback on is, whether or not marijuana retailers should have to pay a higher business licence fee to deal with additional policing costs, for example.
“I feel strongly about the fact that the businesses are disproportionately benefiting from this, as well as disproportionately adding this cost and we have the opportunity to add those fees and I think it may be appropriate. However, I’d like to hear from residents to see what they say on it before any decisions made.”
Your Voice Night will be held on April 19.