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Harpauer didn’t say precisely how much the price should be reduced. She merely suggested that the spread between legal and illegal weed might need to be narrowed to discourage black market sales.

Some of that Moonbeam money goes to pay the excise tax, which was set at the higher of $1 per gram or 10 per cent of purchase price. The federal government takes a quarter of the revenue haul, leaving the rest to the provinces.

SUMA president Gordon Barnhart noted Ottawa always expected the provinces to share their take with municipalities. The 2018 federal budget said as much, noting municipalities are on “the front lines of legalization.” Barnhart stressed that cities with police forces have to spend more money on equipment and training for roadside enforcement, while costs for zoning and bylaw enforcement are also a concern.

That’s why he has kept crusading for a piece of the tax revenues. He recently met with Harpauer and Saskatchewan Party MLAs to make his case. Nearly 50 of SUMA’s members sent letters over the past month as part of the campaign, including the City of Regina. But they’ve met with little success.

“The province has said, ‘Well, it’s such a small amount, it’s not worth bothering with,'” said Barnhart on Monday. “We’re making the argument that a percentage is a percentage. If it’s $1,000 or $10 million, whatever it may be, 25 per cent or 33 per cent of that should be coming to the municipalities.”

Harpauer reiterated her argument to the Leader-Post, saying the money would be a pittance. Revenue for last fiscal year is estimated at $915,000, with $3.42 million anticipated for 2019-20. Divvied up between all of Saskatchewan’s municipalities, that would come to $300 and $1,100, respectively.