Liberals accused of using marijuana plan as smoke screen

Charging the government is using legalization of weed to mask scandals besetting it, neither the Progressive Conservatives, nor the New Democrats will say how they would distribute cannabis.

Thestar.com
Sept. 11, 2017
By Robert Benzie

Accusing the Liberals of using marijuana legalization as a smoke screen for scandals, neither the Progressive Conservatives, nor the New Democrats will yet say how they would distribute cannabis next year.

Both Tory Leader Patrick Brown and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath are questioning the timing of Friday's announcement that the recreational marijuana sales will be restricted to 150 LCBO-run stores and a website.

"They're trying to have a rushed announcement as a distraction. They don't want us talking about the Liberal corruption trials; they want us to be talking about some salacious issue," Brown told reporters Monday.

Horwath also was suspicious that the governing party would appear to be releasing its plans for marijuana hastily. Ottawa is legalizing pot July 1.

"It's interesting to see this come about all of a sudden with very little detail and we know that the reason it's coming out now is because they don't want to see the trials in Sudbury and the trial here in Toronto on the front pages of the papers.

"They want to change the channel," she said.

Attorney General Yasir Naqvi insisted that's not so.

"The timing of it was the Friday before the House started," said Naqvi, referring to the beginning of the penultimate legislative session before the June 7, 2018 election.

"Ontarians want to know ... what is going to be our legislative approach to legalization of cannabis," he said, noting the Liberal government has not heard "any plans" from the opposition on how weed should be sold.

But Brown said his party, which will not unveil its policy for months, does not have enough information from the Liberals to say "yay" or "nay" to a government-run system.

"I'm alarmed. I can't sign off on their plan at this point. They haven't done their due diligence. They haven't done their homework with this new environment where marijuana is legal," the Tory leader said.

"No other province has put forward their plan for distribution yet. The reason that Ontario is rushing this plan is to suit their political timeline and I'm not interested in suiting political timelines," he said.

Horwath, for her part, noted "there's far more questions than there are answers" about how and where recreational marijuana will be sold.

"We don't know what the details are in . . . the implementation or the pricing or the taxing or the determining locations," she said, adding the NDP wants to know more before committing to any proposal.

"All we have is what they've put together with the staff and the bureaucracy. We don't know what they're basing their decisions on. I'm pretty concerned about the lack of information that people have."

As of next July, there will be 40 marijuana outlets. That number will rise to 80 in 2019 and 150 in 2020. The shops will not be provincially owned liquor stores. The weed outlets will be staffed with unionized public servants. There will also be an LCBO online pot portal. Naqvi warned that all the illegal "dispensaries" that have sprung up across Ontario, including about 75 in Toronto, will be closed.

"There will be no place for them in the marketplace and we will be working hard with law enforcement to shut them down," he said.

The LCBO will get its product from the medical-marijuana-producers licenced by Health Canada. There are 58 now, and this number will rise.

Only those 19 and older will be allowed to buy or possess weed and consumption will be limited to private homes.