Toronto doesn't want costs of pot legalization

Licensing executive director Tracey Cook also wants the city to have a say in where provincial pot shops are opened.

Thestar.com
Sept. 13, 2017
By David Rider

City staff support Ontario's plan for LCBO-style pot shops but don't want Toronto saddled with its costs.

In a report released Wednesday, licensing executive director Tracey Cook recommends city council endorse the plan released last week that would initially see marijuana sales only at 150 province-run stores after Ottawa ends prohibition next year.

But Cook makes it clear Toronto does not want to be burdened with potentially major costs for implementation of the regime and for enforcement costs of shutting illegal private stores and enforcing a limit on homegrown plants.

Currently, the federal and provincial governments get revenue from alcohol sales while municipalities primarily shoulder attendant costs from policing, license enforcement and social service costs.

"A provincially-operated (marijuana) retail model guided by public health objectives and social responsibility would help ensure that public health and safety is paramount, thereby reducing local impacts that would require extensive municipal oversight and enforcement. ... ," Cook writes.

But senior governments "must adequately fund on a full-cost-recovery basis for the city's role in implementation and enforcement arising from the legalization of cannabis, including enforcement costs related to the operations of illegal cannabis sales and use."

Cook says Toronto will also need new cannabis-specific "enforcement authorities and tools"; a say in where province-run pot shops are located; and higher maximum fines or penalties for those who break the new pot rules.

The report goes to councillors on the licensing committee next week and likely to city council next month.