- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor

The Ontario government has currently restricted cannabis retail licences to 25 due to supply issues. Those 25 will only be for municipalities of 50,000 or more.  The deadline for all municipalities to decide whether to opt in or out of allowing retail cannabis stores within their boundaries is January 22.

Here are some of the councillors' comments during the discussion.

Richard Thomas - Prohibition doesn't work. We have a 66 year history to prove that. We were elected to take leadership.

Scott Greig - These are not choices I would make myself, but this product is used in our community every day, and regulated stores will reduce dark corner sales.

Carol Merton - We don't know the long-term implications of legalized cannabis. We need more information from Public Health and the Police. But for regulation alone, for avoiding dangerously tainted street product, we should opt in.”

Travis Dodd - Cannabis will be here whether we allow retail stores or not. This is a legal product, like tobacco, alcohol, prescription drugs. We'll have expenses – by-law, police, etc. - whether we opt in or not.

Brian O'Leary - Opting out would be sending the wrong message to the developer whose application for a medical marijuana facility in Owen Sound we have already approved. Clean, legal beer and liquor stores ended bootleggers. Regulated stores should end street dealers.

John Tamming - Markham, Mississauga and Georgian Bluffs voted “not yet”. What's the rush? I am very disappointed that the Public Health Unit chose to sit on the fence, and there was no Police report. We don't know how many stores will ultimately be permitted, and whether or not underground sales will end.  (He voted "opt out").

Marion Koepke - I am deeply concerned about vulnerable individuals. Will their shelter and personal needs suffer?

Brock Hamley asked “Do we have time to ask for a public survey?” The staff response was yes, but the motion to delay the vote until such a survey could be taken was defeated. Councillors agreed that the subject had been well-discussed during the recent election campaign, and the public would not have access to the current, fluid information from the provincial government that has been provided so effectively by the Director of Community Services in her report to council.

Mayor Ian Boddy - “I am very angry that this is on our agenda. This was a federal decision, but whether we like it or not, it is coming, it is here.”

The final vote was 7 – 1 to opt in to allowing retail cannabis sales, under the constraints of a local retail cannabis policy.