GN regulations on cannabis sales won’t emerge until after MLAs choose new government

By STEVE DUCHARME

A Government of Nunavut survey that asks Nunavummiut about the federal government’s impending cannabis legalization next year marks the first step in promised consultations on the issue, but any cohesive policy will have to wait until after the Oct. 30 territorial elections, GN officials say.

“The survey is the right tool to use, to start the conversation and respecting that this government is itself coming to a close in the coming weeks,” the assistant deputy minister for Nunavut’s Department of Finance, Dan Carlson, told Nunatsiaq News Aug. 22.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government introduced a pair of bills in the House of Commons last April that, if passed, would create a deadline of July 1, 2018, for the legalization of personal-use quantities of cannabis across Canada.

That left many provincial and territorial governments scrambling to figure out how to regulate the product’s consumption, sales and distribution.

Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna admitted in July that a 2019 deadline “would have been more ideal,” but Taptuna’s government will eventually be replaced after the fourth legislative assembly dissolves and a fifth legislature is elected on Oct. 30.

Taptuna and the other Nunavut cabinet members will hold office until MLAs choose a new government at a leadership caucus, usually held after the election.

“Decisions about the future of this file, from a public standpoint, will fall to the new government,” Carlson said.

The 26-question survey will provide initial public input on the restrictions the GN has the authority to impose on cannabis use such as the minimum age to purchase and possess cannabis, its use in public spaces, whether to sell it through government-owned or private outlets, and delivery of cannabis by mail.

The survey also asks about awareness strategies, concerns about health impacts and the availability of addictions treatment.

“We are actively encouraging all Nunavummiut who are 16 years of age or older to respond.”

Within the first day its release online, Carlson said more than 400 people had already completed the survey.

That same survey marks the first public initiative from the territory’s cannabis working group, first described by Finance Minister Keith Peterson late last year.

The group will study future cannabis legalization issues and has been communicating with similar groups formed in other jurisdictions, Carlson said.

Carlson said more consultations on the issue will take place in the future.

But much like Nunavut’s cannabis policy, the substantive form of those consultations will be left to the territory’s new government.

“We see this as a first of a set of consultations with Nunavummiut. We haven’t decided how that will play out. That will be a decision for the new government,” he said.

Physical copies of the survey will be available from government liaison officers in remote communities.

The online version of the survey is available until Sept. 22 and can be found here.

For more information on the upcoming implementation of Bills C-45 and C-46 for cannabis legalization, you can read more on the federal government’s website here.