Guelph City Council votes 10-3 in favour of allowing retail cannabis outlets in the city

Guelph will opt in to retail cannabis stores.

City council voted 10-3 Monday night in favour of opting in to retail sales, which will be allowed in Ontario starting April 1.

Municipalities had until Jan. 22 to notify the province of its intentions.

Voting in favour of opting in were councillor Mark MacKinnon, Dominique O’Rourke, Cathy Downer, Leanne Piper, Mike Salisbury, Phil Allt, June Hofland, Rodrigo Goller, James Gordon and mayor Cam Guthrie.

Voting against opting in at this time were councillors Christine Billing, Bob Bell and Dan Gibson.

“I’m a free market person and it’s a legal product now,” said the mayor.

The city will not be able to change its mind after opting in.

Had it voted to opt out at this point, it could have opted in at a later time.

That’s something Gibson pointed out, feeling it would be better to wait and get further educated on the the situation.

"It's okay to pause and work on the education piece," Gibson said.

Billings said opting out would give council time to lobby the government for increased regulations.

She didn’t like the fact there would be no cap on the number or location of the retail outlets.

“It will be easier to put a pot store in Ward 6 than to get a gas station,” she said in making her point.

Ultimately it will be the province’s Alcohol Gaming Commission that will be in charge of granting the licences, much the same way they do with liquor licences.

The city has an opinion, but no say about the number of stores or their location, said Doug Godfrey, the city’s general manager of operations.

The city will get some money from the province.

In total the province is distributing $30 million over two years to help municipalities cover costs associated with the new laws.

Guelph would get $142,000 from the province in January and a second, as-yet unknown amount, in March.

The city could also get more money in the future if/when the province's tax revenue from pot sales exceeds $100 million.

Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health wanted the city to opt out for now.

Medical Officer of Health Dr. Nicola Mercer delegated Monday and spent a half an hour fielding questions from councillors.

“Increased use means increased harms,” said Mercer.

“Public Health is not opposed to the retail sale of legal cannabis …. It is the bricks and mortar storefronts of which you have little control that is of concern,” she said.

“The harms are very real and the harms are there,” Mercer said.

Mercer said it is “fact” that retail cannabis companies will try and locate their stores near schools and in poorer neighbourhoods.

Councillor Mike Salisbury said “we’re not discussing relative harms of cannabis, we’re discussing distribution models.”

Salisbury later said that "opting out simply continues illegal sales. It's that simple."

Anthony Vedder, an admitted marijuana user, said “it took way too long to get to this point” and that online marijuana is of low quality, heavily regulated and heavily packaged.

Vedder told council that without retail outlets “all you’re doing is sending our kids to real drug dealers.

“This is a hippy community. We want it in our community,” Vedder said.

Brett Bell, a consultant representing retail cannabis seller Fire & Flower Cannabis Co., said the most common reasons people use cannabis are anxiety, sleep and stress.

He said that in Colorado, where marijuana is legal, use among youth and opioid use overall both dropped following the legalization of pot.

Council also heard Monday that the University of Guelph would like to be considered a “school” and not have retail cannabis stores within 150 metres of its campus. Under the current provincial regulations, they would not be.