By: Mike Anderson

Town Council voted unanimously to lift the ban on pot shops in Georgina last week, opting into the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario’s (AGCO) licensing process.

The move is a reversal of the Council’s previous 4-3 vote in January 2019 to opt-out, despite a public survey that showed more than 73 per cent of respondents supported legal cannabis retailing in Georgina.

Ward 1 Councillor Mike Waddington introduced the motion to opt-in during the May 19 virtual session, after Council reviewed a staff report addressing concerns previously raised by several Council members, including Mayor Margaret Quirk.

“I think we should have bought it in the first time,” said Coun. Waddington before the vote.

“I think we passed up a great opportunity to be able to collect some of the revenues that were being promised at the time. And the public survey showed a huge amount of support for this.”

However, Mayor Quirk disputed any revenue loss resulting from the earlier decision to opt-out, arguing that the Town received the same provincial funds that others got – approximately $30,000 – for opting in.

“I don’t think there have been any big checks cut to municipalities for opting in earlier,” Mayor Quirk said.

“They didn’t get much more than what we received for not opting in at the time. So I don’t think we lost out on a lot of revenue.”

While Council’s original decision to opt-out was partly driven by concerns over youth access to cannabis and the lack of control over where stores would be located, the staff report, which surveyed the experience of other municipalities, found that pot shops have been generally “well-received.”

And, more importantly, there has been “a high rate of compliance with identification and age regulations.”

“There are high rates of compliance with these regulations because retail store operators have a lot of skin in the game,” said Tolek Makarewicz, the Town’s Senior Policy Planner, who authored the 60-page report.

“They do go through the required training. The regulatory agencies do compliance checks. So a lot of these requirements help to keep the integrity of the Cannabis License Act intact.”

However, the thorny issue over who gets to decide where pot shops are located in the community still remains.

Currently, pot shops must be located in a commercial zone and be stand-alone, physically separated from other businesses. They are not permitted within 150 metres of a school.

However, there is nothing in AGCO regulations that prevents pot shops from opening next to daycares, parks or addiction treatment centres.

And municipalities are prohibited from passing bylaws to license or zone cannabis retail stores.

Still, Council directed staff to draft a public interest statement in the form of a briefing note, which identifies sensitive land uses and sets minimum distances between stores.

It’s hoped that staff will use the statement to comment on retail store applications (RSAs) considered by the AGCO.

While the AGCO, which provides a 15-day notice period for applications, says it will consider comments related to the public interest when reviewing RSAs, these are sometimes overlooked in practice.

According to the staff report, public interest statements issued by municipalities have “no legislative basis or legal authority” and may or may not be considered by AGCO during the review of RSAs.

For instance, in Stouffville, a pot shop could be allowed to open next to a daycare centre. And in Barrie and Bradford West Gwillimbury, the AGCO approved RSAs that did not meet the minimum setbacks outlined in public interest statements.

These oversights may be occurring because the AGCO has streamlined its process of approving RSAs.

The lottery system, which restricted approvals due to a shortage of cannabis supply, has been replaced with an open licensing process, which has led to more frequent approvals.

The AGCO has recently committed to processing RSAs as quickly as possible, intending to make legal cannabis more broadly available to counter the illegal market.

In February 2021, for instance, the AGCO committed to issuing 30 RSAs per week — that’s 120 new pot shops opening each month.

While municipal councils cannot control the number or location of pot shops in their communities, this hasn’t stopped most Ontario municipalities from opting in.

In fact, 345 of 414 (83.3%) Ontario municipalities have opted-in, with 600 retail stores currently operating and another 918 applications under review.

Still, in York Region, only Aurora and Whitchurch-Stouffville have opted-in, representing two out of eight local municipalities, with six retail stores open for business and another 13 awaiting their licenses.

If you would like to find out if a pot shop is coming to your neighbourhood, visit www.iagco.agco.ca to register for an email update on RSAs in Georgina.

Mike Anderson
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