Pubdate: Tue, 17 Nov 2015
Source: Vancouver 24hours (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Vancouver 24 hrs.
Contact: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/letters
Website: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3837
Author: Stefania Seccia,
Page: 3

CITIES NEED ONE POT PROCESS: MAYOR

City considers $4,000 to $5,000 business license fee for marijuana dispensaries

In the midst of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mandating his Minister 
of Justice to begin the legalization process for marijuana, the City 
of Victoria how to regulate the 23 dispensaries that have cropped up 
in B.C.'s capital.

Following in Vancouver's footsteps, the city wants to ban the sale of 
food products - other than tinctures, capsules or edible oils, 
establish a 200-metre distance from schools and other storefront 
marijuana retailers, and implement a slew of security measures.

The city is also considering business licence fees in the $4,000 to 
$5,000 ballpark - significantly cheaper than Vancouver's $30,000 fee 
imposed on for-profit pot businesses.

But Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps insists it isn't about the city being 
kinder than Vancouver in regards to fees.

"It has everything to do with the community charter versus the 
Vancouver Charter - no other municipality other than Vancouver can 
charge fees like that," she said. "We can only charge the amount that 
it costs us to administer the service. We don't have the same options."

Helps said the staff report going before council this Thursday 
highlights "why this shouldn't be a municipal issue."

"It's not our responsibility and we shouldn't have to waste staff 
time and taxpayer resources on this," she said.

The staff recommendations include requiring each business to submit a 
security plan, police information checks for every on-site manager, 
proof of a security alarm contract, video surveillance cameras and 
having it monitored at all times. Each business that keeps marijuana 
on the premises must install an air filtration system.

The recommendations, if approved, would impact all marijuana-related 
businesses, which means stores that only sell pot-related 
paraphernalia, according to the report.

Helps said the recommendations came out of staff working with 
Vancouver city officials, local stakeholders and police authorities - 
but notes that every municipality dealing with it in their own way is 
not the way to go.

"We're seeing Vancouver doing one thing, Victoria doing another, and 
then Nanaimo doing another," she said. "It's an uneven playing field 
across British Columbia in a way we don't do with any other industry."

The report suggests different options moving forward - either waiting 
to see what the federal government does or moving ahead with a public 
engagement event.

Helps said she wants to move forward to avoid having the current 
dispensaries getting "grandfathered in" like with liquor retail stores.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom