No provincial jackpot expected from legal weed
Most of the revenue earned will go back into control measures, Ontario finance minister says.

thestar.com
By Robert Benzie
Dec. 14, 2016

Marijuana will not be the pot of Colombian gold at the end of the rainbow for the cash-strapped provincial treasury.

That was the message at Queen’s Park on Wednesday in the wake of a federal task force report on implementing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s pledge to legalize recreational marijuana.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa, who hopes to eliminate the province’s $4.3 billion deficit in the 2017-18 budget, insisted the government is not expecting weed cash to be rolling in.

“Whatever we’re getting in is being reinvested to control the substance and the system. It’s not being seen as a means to balance the books or provide for revenue,” Sousa told the Star.

“For us, the benefit of any revenue would be to go into programs,” he said, pointing to public education, health, and motor safety initiatives.

The treasurer said because legalized marijuana will not be sold at the LCBO - the federal task force recommended “no co-location of alcohol or tobacco and cannabis sales” - it won’t be the cash bonanza some had expected.

“With liquor, it’s a huge dividend. Of course that distribution is completely different than what it would be with marijuana. (The LCBO are) wholesalers, they’re major distributors, they’re retailers, it’s a different system,” he said.

A Deloitte report in October estimated that marijuana could balloon to a $22.6-billion industry in Canada, eclipsing combined sales of beer, wine, and spirits.

The company calculated that feeding the market would mean growing 600,000 kilograms of weed annually, which is far more than the existing 36 Health Canada-licensed producers grow for medicinal purposes.

Attorney General Yasir Naqvi predicted there will be costs associated with legalized weed.

“The revenues that are going to be raised most likely are going to be reinvested back in ensuring that we are protecting youth and the vulnerable, that we are enhancing both public health and safety,” said Naqvi.

“We do know we will have to make a significant investment around the legal use of cannabis. One example is on road safety. We know that data has shown from other jurisdictions that incidents of impaired driving have gone up,” he said.

As for the age limit for using marijuana, Naqvi, mindful that Ontario’s legal drinking age is 19, said no decisions have been made.

“They talked about a minimum age of 18,” he said, referring to the federal panel. “They did not preclude any higher age limit.”

At Queen’s Park, there are bureaucrats from a dozen departments working on the province’s strategy for marijuana in anticipation of Trudeau’s government legalizing it next year.

Public servants from the Ministries of Finance, Health, Education, Transportation, the Attorney General, Community Safety and Correctional Services, Municipal Affairs, Children and Youth Services, Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, Community and Social Services, the Treasury Board secretariat, and the cabinet office are involved in the effort.