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This article was published 9/11/2017 (1045 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Brian Pallister's government went stone cold silent on legal retail cannabis Thursday while federal officials considered their reaction to Manitoba's plan of allowing municipal councils to have the final say on local sales.

The federal government will brief reporters in Ottawa Friday morning on its plans to legalize and regulate recreational cannabis.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Minister of Justice and Attorney General Heather Stefanson during the announcement of a hybrid model for distribution and retail of cannabis at the Legislature, Tuesday.

But the Pallister government did not make the premier or any cabinet ministers available to the media Thursday and a communications staffer intervened when a reporter tried to ask Justice Minister Heather Stefanson about any possible reaction from Ottawa.

The province did release revenue projections and other data from a Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries expression of interest on handling all aspects of legal cannabis.

Those data projections were based on the public sector's handling cannabis, rather than the system of private retailers selling under public oversight which Pallister announced Tuesday.

The province has not yet made a decision on taxes that will be applied to pot sales, another factor the MBLL figures lack.

And MBLL's projections were filed before this week's revelation that the Pallister government will allow municipal councils to decide if they'll allow local cannabis retail sales, using the same authority that lets them control Sunday shopping or choose whether the community will be wet or dry.

Prospective private retailers have until Dec. 22 to submit their own business plans.

The Crown corporation estimated that Manitoba's annual black market is 25 million grams of cannabis at a value of $217 million to $250 million.

MBLL forecast a net profit of $12.7 million if it captured just 20 per cent of the current market. Within five years, MBLL said, it projected that an 80 per cent market share, including edible cannabis and lotions, would make a profit of $94 million.

The figures MBLL used suggest it was looking at an initial price of $5.83 a gram.

So far, Health Canada will not outright confirm whether municipalities can use their bylaws to ban pot sales.

"The proposed act provides scope for provinces and territories to enact legislation that contains minimum conditions, so that public health and safety objectives are consistently addressed across the country," spokesman Eric Morrissette said.

He said that provinces could boost the minimum age, lower the possession limit, or restrict personal cultivation and could also provide their municipalities the choice of making their own decisions in those areas.

"This approach allows provinces, territories and municipalities to take specific local considerations into account," wrote Morrissette.

He supplied the transcript from a Sept. 11 committee meeting, in which MPs asked senior federal officials whether provinces — not municipalities — could effectively ban marijuana sales by lowering the personal possession limit to zero.

Diane Labelle, Health Canada's general counsel, said a court would likely find that illegal and order the province to change its rules.

"Where the purpose of a federal act would be frustrated by the provision of a provincial one… a court would examine whether there is a conflict, or whether the purposes of the federal act are frustrated, and could find the provincial law inoperable to the extent of that frustration," Labelle told the House health committee.

Conservative health critic Marilyn Gladu said that means a lack of clarity over whether towns and First Nations reserves could keep their communities dry or face a similar legal crackdown.

"I certainly think that's concerning," she said. "There's a lot of abdication of leadership from the federal Liberals on this; they're rushing ahead without thinking of any of these details and all these questions keep coming forward."

Federal NDP health critic Don Davies said courts would likely strike down municipal bans if they unjustly discriminate against a legalized form of commerce.

"Balance is going to be the touchstone; there could be justifiable exceptions," Davies said. "But if it's nothing but a subterfuge, a cover, to frustrate federal policy without a justified reason, then I think there's going to be problems."

Manitoba Liberal MP MaryAnn Mihychuk said Thursday that municipal pot bans likely won't work in practice, noting that Steinbach allowed alcohol sales in recent years.

"I think Pallister needs to reflect," she said. "Social norms are governing the day and I think he's being too cute. It would be more valuable if he put in a structure that actually reflected the use of other substances, like alcohol and cigarettes, for the whole province."

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca