A divided Hamilton council is not ready to vote for or against legal pot shops

The city is poised to kick the debate down the road to January --and allow residents to have their say online.

Thespec.com
December 19, 2018
Matthew Van Dongen

It looks like a deeply divided council will put off a decision on whether to allow legal pot shops in Hamilton and instead seek resident feedback over the holidays.

At a special meeting Tuesday, councillors argued for hours and pinballed through several contradictory votes that ended with a 7-6 decision to delay a final debate until Jan. 14 on "opting out" of hosting legal cannabis stores.

A full council still needs to ratify that close call Wednesday --and since three members missed the last vote, the decision could yet be overturned. But if the delay is approved, city staff will use the extra time to post a resident survey online and compile new statistics on related policing costs.

Coun. Terry Whitehead said he supports allowing legal pot retailers to set up shop sooner rather than later --but he also argued city residents deserve a say on what is a "profound decision."

"We haven't consulted the broader community," he said, pointing by comparison to Burlington, which is also delaying its decision to January despite already hosting a community meeting and soliciting online resident comments.

All cities in Ontario have until Jan. 22 to decide whether to opt in or out of hosting legal pot shops next spring under new provincial rules. Only 25 shops will be allowed at first provincewide, with licences and locations chosen by regional lottery. (That means if Hamilton opts in the city could host up to seven legal shops by April 1 --or none.)

Large cities like Ottawa and Toronto have opted in --but a growing number of cities like Mississauga, Brampton, Markham, Richmond Hill, Oakville and Pickering have voted to pass on legal cannabis stores, at least for now.

The province has said cities can say no now and opt in later. But that means forgoing funding available to early pot store adopters.

Most councillors emphasized Tuesday they support legal retail sales of marijuana --but not "inadequate" provincial funding and unpopular regulations that prevent municipal licensing or control over pot shop locations.

"I want to opt in. This isn't an issue of morality, of (cannabis) being good or bad," said Coun. Sam Merulla, who had his motion to opt out deferred in the narrow 7-6 vote. "This is just a bad deal. We can now create the leverage to get a better deal."

Police told councillors Tuesday that Hamilton, at one point, had the second-highest number of illegal pot shops per capita in Ontario with 80, behind only Toronto. Merulla said the province needs to give more funding to Hamilton to help crack down on more than 30 illegal dispensaries still operating in the city.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger, on the other hand, argued accepting legal stores now is the "only logical option" because opting out will mean Hamilton losing out on $650,000 in possible provincial funding.

"Opting in later is just going to cost us … that seems to me to be rather foolish."

Most delegates to council Tuesday --including business advocates, prospective pot retailers and growers --argued in favour of welcoming legal pot shops immediately.

Britney Guerra, who started one of the city's first illegal cannabis dispensaries and hopes to run a legal version someday, told councillors Hamilton is already known as "the cannabis capital of Ontario."

She urged the city to "take advantage" of that demand and benefit from tax dollars that would come from legal, regulated businesses. "We would love to pay taxes," she said of marijuana industry pioneers who have long fought to be licensed and "don't want to be criminals anymore."

Hamilton chamber of commerce head Keanin Loomis also argued a regulated, legal industry would "compete with and overwhelm" black market dispensaries. He told councillors legal medical and recreational marijuana has "huge market potential" in Hamilton and should be encouraged as "advanced agriculture."

Not everyone was onside, however.

Pat Daly, chair of the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board, urged council to forbid legal pot shops a foothold in the city. Daly said the board is "deeply concerned" about what it considers an inadequate 150-metre separation distance proposed by the province between pot shops and schools.

Daly argued that proximity will "certainly lead to increased use and exacerbate the already serious health issues associated with cannabis use by young people."

At first, councillors voted against putting off the debate and followed up with a 7-6 vote against the staff proposal to allow legal pot shops.

But a conflicted Coun. Esther Pauls --who emphasized in an emotional speech that she opposes the sale of pot for recreational purposes --had a change of heart and later switched her vote to support a deferral on the "opt out" debate.

Councillors Nrinder Nann, Judi Partridge and Brenda Johnson were not at the meeting for the final vote.