City to zone for medicinal weed

thedailyobserver.ca
Aug. 11, 2015
By Stephen Uhler

The production of medicinal marijuana is the future, and Pembroke wants in.

On Tuesday, city council voted unanimously to include medical marijuana facilities as a permitted use within industrial zones, as listed in its zoning bylaw.

Colleen Sauriol, planning and building department manager, said staff were asked to include this use in the zoning bylaw. She said many municipalities are adding medical marijuana facilities or medicinal product manufacturing facility as a permitted use in their industrial zones.

“They are adding setback requirements from residential or institutional uses such as schools and community centres,” she said. “The city of Ottawa and the town of Caledon have a separation distance of 150 metres between a medicinal marijuana facility and a lot in an industrial or residential zone category.”

Sauriol told councillors anyone wanting to set up such a facility in Pembroke would still require a site plan agreement along with Health Canada licensing, the requirements and regulations for which are very strict and far beyond what the city would require.

“Production is restricted to indoors and storefronts, retail outlets and advertisements are prohibited,” she said. “There are standards for the site such as barriers, intruder detection, secure vault storage, filtration of air to prevent odours from escaping and enhanced staff clearances.”

Sauriol said as of May 2015, there are 18 fully licenced medicinal marijuana producers in Canada, and seven additional producers licenced to cultivate it, One of these producers, Tweed, is located in Smith Falls and is operating out of the former Hershey's chocolate plant.

Coun. Andrew Plummer, who made the request, said this is a rapidly growing industry, and the city should be prepared to take advantage of it.

“We need to be on that niche list,” he said, and to be ready in case someone does think of setting up such a facility here. Plummer said he has contacted Tweed and was told if the company had known of Pembroke's lower electricity rates, Tweed may in fact be operating here.

“If we have the zoning in place, we can take advantage of this new industry,” he said, and be able to collect much needed tax revenue.

Mayor Michael LeMay agreed, saying this council's top priority is to encourage economic development and attract new businesses and investment into the municipality to bolster the tax base.

Coun. Christine Reavie also backed the idea, saying medicinal marijuana production is a quickly growing industry, and the city should be prepared for the possibility it may be developed here one day.

Sauriol said notice of this zoning change will be subject to a public meeting, as would any change to the city's zoning bylaw, before it could be approved. The time and location of the meeting will be advertised soon in the local media and online on the city's website.