12 provincial departments working on Ontario’s weed strategy

There are bureaucrats from a dozen provincial departments working on a cannabis strategy that will examine the impact of legalized recreational marijuana.

Thestar.com
June 23, 2016
By Robert Benzie

Talk about a joint effort.

There are bureaucrats from a dozen provincial departments working on an exhaustive cannabis strategy that will examine the impact of legalized recreational marijuana.

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government prepares to change federal laws next year, officials at Queen’s Park are looking at everything from the effects on health and road safety to justice issues and fiscal implications.

Public servants from the Ministries of Health, Education, Finance, 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.

Premier Kathleen Wynne emphasized Thursday that regulating the drug and limiting access for children and teenagers is a key concern no matter what the forthcoming federal legislation looks like.

“I want there to be a controlling protocol in place. I think it is important in the same way that in Ontario we have controls on alcohol,” Wynne told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning.

“We need to have some regulation of recreational marijuana. What I’m concerned about right now is that there hasn’t been a clear delineation between recreational and medicinal marijuana,” she said.

While such marijuana is legal for those who have a prescription from a medical doctor, the storefront “dispensaries” sprouting up across Toronto are illegal.

Wynne said the lack of legislative clarity from Ottawa has allowed the weed outlets to thrive to the point that there are more than 100 in the city even with police crackdowns.

“I think that’s why we are seeing these shops put up. Right now the only mechanism to deal with those is municipal bylaws. We need that federal framework in order to be able to put a regulatory regime in place,” she said.

“It’s true that within our government we are looking at - once the federal framework is in place - what would we be prepared to do as a province in terms of regulating marijuana.”

The premier said she has touted the Liquor Control Board of Ontario as a mechanism to deliver recreational marijuana because the 650-store government booze monopoly has experience in this area.

“I only put the LCBO forward as a possibility because it already exists, because we understand how it could regulate the substance,” she said.

“But if there’s a better suggestion, we’re open to that.”

Wynne insisted that government control of recreational cannabis is not about ensuring the proceeds go into provincial coffers.

“I don’t know what the implications for that are,” the premier said of the potential tax bonanza.

“For me that’s really not the point; the point is how do we make sure that we know what is in this substance once it is legalized and how do we control access, for young people particularly, who shouldn’t have access to it.”

Liberal MP Bill Blair (Scarborough Southwest) is Trudeau’s point man on updating Canada’s marijuana laws.

Blair, a former Toronto police chief, has expressed concern about the illegal dispensaries and points out that the LCBO has long been effective at preventing underage Ontarians from getting alcohol.

LCBO officials have said they are closely monitoring developments in Ottawa and at Queen’s Park and await direction from the province on what role the corporation will play in cannabis retailing or wholesaling.

Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union that represents LCBO workers, has said it makes sense to utilize the provincial agency’s trained employees and secure warehouses to ensure marijuana is safely dispensed.