Pubdate: Tue, 12 Sep 2017
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2017 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Kelly McParland
Page: A10

WYNNE'S PLAN UNIONIZES YOUR DRUG DEALER

Anyone who thought Ontario would ever allow private enterprise to get
involved in operating legal marijuana outlets doesn't know the Liberal
party of Premier Kathleen Wynne very well.

Wynne announced Friday that the pot business will be run just like the
liquor business, via government outlets staffed by unionized
employees. "I'm pretty pleased with what the plan looks like so far,"
confessed Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president of the Ontario Public
Service Employees Union, who has been pushing hard to keep pot a
union-operated business. "I've been lobbying the government for a long
time on this, so I like to think we had some influence."

Thomas is the same union boss who groused that fellow labour honchos
"sold their souls to the Liberals" by campaigning for Wynne in the
last election. He was sounding a lot happier after learning the
Cannabis Control Board of Ontario - or whatever the new bureaucracy is
called - will become an appendage of the LCBO. When it comes to retail
distribution, insisted Finance Minister Charles Sousa, "the LCBO has
the expertise, the experience and the insight to ensure careful
control of cannabis, to help us discourage illicit market activity and
see that illegal dispensaries are shut down."

The decision was deemed a blow to the "dispensaries" that have popped up 
across the province even before marijuana becomes legal next July. 
Liberals maintain the 150 government-run cannabis outlets will create 
jobs, overlooking the jobs that will be lost when the private outlets 
are forcibly closed. Of course, Thomas hopes that jobs on the public 
payroll will come equipped with LCBO-level pay and benefits, and a 
protected status that should make for happy employees beholden to the 
caring government that brought them about and the union that will be out 
to recruit them. As Thomas crowed on Friday: "There is no downside to 
today's announcement."

He's right, of course … if you happen to believe only government can
be trusted to do anything right, in spite of all evidence to the
contrary. Wynne's is the most left-wing government in Ontario's
history, much more so than the ill-fated NDP regime that was hustled
off to history after one troubled mandate in the 1990s. The unions
were apoplectic by the end of former premier Bob Rae's time in office;
in contrast, they pour both time and money into getting the Liberals
re-elected time and again, no matter how many boondoggles they pile up
in their wake.

Even as Wynne was revealing her pot plan, her party was suffering the
embarrassment of two separate trials of senior Liberals. And on
Thursday, two independent offices-those of the auditor general and the
financial accountability officer-declared that the government's budget
numbers can't be trusted. Only by fudging numbers, skirting accounting
rules, and projecting unlikely growth figures could the Liberals meet
the rosy forecasts they persist in releasing, they said. That will
become evident eventually, but Wynne's people intend to do their best
to bamboozle voters at least until the next election is over.

It may be no coincidence that the marijuana announcement was timed to
coincide with those less appetizing headlines. It allowed the premier
to pose as a defender of law and order, and a protector of the young
and vulnerable, rather than the head of a government steeped in
scandal and struggling against abysmal popularity ratings. As the
Liberals prepare for June's election, they're eager to demonstrate
they are capable of something besides record deficits, unpopular
energy policies and a cozy relationship with high-cost unions. They've
already placated consumers with subsidized power bills, bought off
teachers' unions with an early and generous contract extension, and
gone to war with doctors as evidence of their determination to keep
spending under control. (That battle, unfortunately, may just be
starting: Ottawa's deeply unpopular plan to change tax laws affecting
many doctors may only prompt them to demand much higher pay next time
they're at the provincial bargaining ta! ble.)

There is a good chance the new marijuana regime will fail to fulfil
the government's hopes for it. The planned 150 outlets have been
dismissed as far too few to meet demand. The cost of running the
bureaucracy may push prices to the point that black market operators
continue to find plenty of business. Pot is easier to smuggle than
liquor; just look at the illicit tobacco trade for proof of that.

But the unions will be happy with the plan, whether it works or not.
And Ontarians may secretly breathe a sigh of relief, given that many
continue to harbour considerable disquiet about legalization. They may
tell pollsters they approve of legalization in theory, but open a pot
store across the street from their kid's school and see how they
squawk. Private "dispensaries" may gripe, but they did nothing to help
their cause by opening illegal storefront operations in defiance of
the law, making a mockery of police efforts to shut them down. If you
want to convince the public you can be trusted to keep illegal drugs
away from the young, flouting the law is not a good way to go about
it.

The new government outlets won't open until next summer, ensuring
judgment can't be passed until the election is over. That suits the
Liberals to a T. Nothing consumes Wynne and her colleagues more than
the drive to win one more election. Posing as protectors of public
integrity and the health of the young is great campaign material, even
as Liberal bean counters tally up the revenue they hope to garner from
peddling pot in government stores.
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MAP posted-by: Matt