A cannabis-related business policy has been approved by qathet Regional District to guide decision-making on cannabis-related business applications within the regional district.
Regional directors voted to establish the cannabis-related policy at the regional board meeting on Thursday, June 27.
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne spoke against the motion. He said cannabis retail is completely separate from cannabis production.
“My concern is that if someone comes in, they make an application to start a cannabis production facility on ALR (agricultural land reserve) land, we process their application and take their money, and a while later they find out the regional district had no authority to do any of that because they are on the ALR,” said Gisborne. “They can then come back at us with a great deal of displeasure.”
Gisborne said as was discussed at the June 11 planning committee meeting when the matter was first brought forward, cannabis is a major industry in this community and a big economic driver.
“I can’t support this policy because they are two completely separate issues merged into one,” said Gisborne. “I really do believe the two policies should be split apart and a cannabis production policy should go into a lot more detail about what we want to see in this region, and how that affects the businesses and the workers in this community.”
Regional board chair Patrick Brabazon asked Gisborne why he would expect staff to do anything they have no authority to do.
“I don’t expect the staff to do anything outside of the authority that they hold," said Brabazon.
According to a staff report, the purpose of the qathet Regional District cannabis policy is to ensure cannabis-related businesses are located in such a manner that they are sensitive to potential impacts on the surrounding community and are located in appropriate locations. The policy is also designed so the regional district is providing sufficient information in cannabis-related business licence application referral packages. The policy also stipulates that the regional district takes views of the public into account when making recommendations to the province on cannabis retail sales applications.
