The City of Lacombe’s cannabis committee recently presented some of their findings to residents at Coffee with Council, which was held during the Lacombe and District Chamber of Commerce Trade Show.
Councillor Thalia Hibbs, who is on the committee along with Councillor Jonathan Jacobson, said the committee has been separated into three task forces.
“Those involve land use, community standards and human resources,” she said. “That committee and the task forces have been very busy trying to stay ahead of the curve and to be ready with recommendations for council very quickly so that council has adequate time to provide further recommendations and to move forward with what will actually happen in this community.”
The committee — which is made up of members of City council, the Lacombe Police Service, Bylaw Enforcement, the Chamber, FCSS, City Administration and other interest groups — is looking at the impending legalization of recreational cannabis as an opportunity for Lacombe.
“It was a well done process and we came to a relatively quick consensus around framing it similar to alcohol and also that in this community we want it to be very business friendly,” she said. “We want that to be at the forefront when we are making some of these decisions. You will see that in many of these discussions, especially when it comes to land use.”
The findings of the committee and the input from the public will be presented to council in May.
While public consumption of cannabis was quickly ruled out by the committee, the City’s approach promises to be different than other municipalities that are looking to severely limit cannabis retail and production spaces.
“You can see on the maps that retail sales and production will be in areas that are already zoned for commercial and other businesses,” Hibbs said. “These are just like any other businesses, so that makes sense.
“Organically the way our community is set up, businesses are already away from areas like schools for example. We didn’t feel the need to worry about setbacks.”
She added the committee also isn’t recommending that legislation be in place to separate cannabis retail and production from other cannabis businesses.
“Frankly we don’t have those for other businesses as well. I believe it is best to have the market decide on things like that rather than having government intervention,” Hibbs said.
Going forward, legislation will likely change at both the federal and provincial levels, meaning that Lacombe and other municipalities will have to be flexible with their implementation strategies.
“Whatever council does decide to do with these recommendations, the expectation is that there will be changes going forward,” Hibbs said, adding that they are concerned with how taxation from cannabis will be distributed back into municipalities.
“There are costs involved with this and unfortunately with the way it is working out, there is no firm commitment regarding how much funding will come down to municipalities,” she said. “It has been made very clear there will be a delay in that money being funnelled down to municipalities.
“They are expecting a three-year window before that money starts to flow. There will be a stretch in the beginning where those costs will be downloaded to municipalities to bear.”
After the committee presents their findings to council in May, it will be up to council to make any further recommendations to the City’s cannabis policies.
Overall, the reception at Coffee and council was positive according to Hibbs.
“They seem to agree with the recommendations,” she said. “The only comments that I had that were concerns were of course consumption on private property. You may have two neighbours that don’t see eye to eye on the subject. Cannabis can be something that is offensive to some people and that will be a concern going forward.
“It is difficult to regulate what happens on private property so that will be a fine line to walk. Community peace is important to council and I’m sure we will discuss that at length.”