Share marijuana revenue, take zero-tolerance approach for drivers, Calgary tells Ottawa

Trevor Howell,

Calgary officials are urging Ottawa to consider a zero-tolerance policy for drivers under the influence of marijuana, share tax revenue from sales of the drug and surrender addresses of existing medicinal cannabis grow-ops.

In an Aug. 24 submission to the federal government’s Task Force Marijuana Legalization and Regulation, city manager Jeff Fielding calls for ongoing discussions “throughout the legalization process to ensure clear delineation of roles and expectations” between the three orders of government.

“Municipalities will be an important partner in developing, implementing and enforcing new regulations in this area,” Fielding wrote.

The four-page document broadly outlines concerns held by the Calgary Police Service and various city departments on the implications legalizing cannabis could have on the community.

The Trudeau government announced April 20 that it would introduce new legislation in the spring of 2017, establishing a nine-member task force to gather input from provincial and municipal governments, indigenous people, health and addiction experts. The panel is expected to report back to the government in November.

Calgary’s submission identifies several general areas of concern — including land-use and business licensing, building and fire code compliance, community standards, enforcement and community safety — but notes officials won’t fully understand the impact until the legislation is introduced next year.

“We follow very closely what the federal government is moving forward on and, as things evolve . . . we’re going to stay aligned with it and create the uses as they are permitted federally,” Wayne Brown, co-ordinator for the City of Calgary’s safety response unit, said in an interview.

In 2014, city council amended land-use bylaws to specifically allow for commercial marijuana growing operations as a discretionary use in areas zoned for general industrial activity. Earlier this year, council approved rules to prevent marijuana counselling businesses from clustering in neighbourhoods or opening within 150 metres of a school.

The city — like many municipalities across the country — wants Ottawa to provide a portion of potential taxes or revenues from marijuana sales to offset the cost of educational initiatives, addiction services and “other programs to address the social issues that may arise with legalization,” according to Calgary’s submission.

Health Canada has estimated revenue from medical marijuana will hit $1.3 billion with 450,000 patients by 2024. Analysts have pegged the medical market as high as $3 billion with 800,000 patients and recreational sales reaching $5 billion by 2024.

“We’re not looking for taxing (power), we’re looking for money that they’re collecting to rebate us for the additional costs, said Coun. Ward Sutherland, vice-chair of the city’s priorities and finance committee.

“Once they legalize it, they’re going to get taxes from it, so they’d know exactly how many dollars they’re getting in . . . it would be pretty easy to do the rebates,” he said. “It wouldn’t be convoluted.”

Authorities remain concerned about the lack of technology available to police to test THC levels in drivers, making enforcement difficult, and suggest a zero-tolerance policy until “technological advancements are made.”

“We don’t really have a system that has been authorized by any level of government for accuracy and that will hold up in court to deal with the marijuana issue,” said Sutherland, who also sits on the Calgary Police Commission. 

“A lot of people kind of brush it off thinking it’s not a big deal to do the marijuana and go out and drive,” he said. “It puts everyone in a bad situation and with no way to resolve it until we get the technology to deal with it.”

The city has also renewed its call for the federal government to provide more information on legal, residential medical marijuana grow-ops. Health Canada has long maintained releasing that information would be a violation of people’s privacy.

Since 2013, the city, Alberta Health Services and Calgary police conducted 55 safety inspections in homes with medical marijuana grow-ops and typically found “significant” building, safety and health code violations, according to Calgary’s submission.

Municipal leaders across the province will descend on Edmonton this week for the annual Alberta Urban Municipal Association convention where they can attend a session on the implications of marijuana legalization.

“Getting information out on what the impacts will be will calm everyone down,” said Lisa Holmes, president of the AUMA.

“Right now the only information we have is that it’s happening in our communities, we’re not able to know where the grow-ops are and our local police departments are not able to know where they are,” she said. “That adds an element to some unease in the public safety world.”