It's unknown if Thunder Bay will be home to one of the first 25 private physical cannabis retailers in Ontario.

THUNDER BAY – The city is open for business, at least when it comes to allowing private brick-and-mortar pot shops.

Thunder Bay city council late Monday night unanimously voted to opt in to permit physical cannabis retail storefronts.

The provincial Progressive Conservative government had given Ontario municipalities until Jan. 22 to decide whether to permit or prohibit the stores. A decision to opt out could be reversed at any time, while opting in is permanently binding.

“Your decision (Monday) is whether to permit a lawful storefront for the sale of cannabis in the city of Thunder Bay,” city manager Norm Gale said. “That decision has several implications.”

The province has limited the number of storefronts to open initially at 25, with two allocated for Northern Ontario. Those shops can only open in municipalities with a population of more than 50,000 that have opted in to allowing stores.

Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury and North Bay are the only four cities in the region to meet the criteria.

Results of a lottery for applicants to open a store were recently released, though it’s unknown if the selected applicants intend to set up shop in Thunder Bay.

Coun. Brian Hamilton wondered if the city had an opportunity to get into the business.

“Illicit drug sales leave our community. We send every year millions and millions of dollars out of our community and the direct benefits of legalization won’t really be realized unless we’re producing, growing on our own,” Hamilton said.

“Can we sell weed?”

Gale responded that the lottery process that has been completed wouldn’t allow that to happen in the short term but indicated it might be possible in the future.

“We are not considering it. We would, however, with council direction if council was interested in that and before that direction was provided or contemplated I would like to have further discussions with council,” Gale said.

“At this time we are not looking at it.”

Of the 15 city departments, divisions and committees consulted, only the Thunder Bay Police Service recommended opting out.

Acting deputy chief Don Lewis pointed to the change to private outlets from the previously proposed model of government run stores.

“There’s just not a real comfort level with whoever the licence holder may be,” Lewis said. “We know there is a huge shortage, which was predicted, with the supply of cannabis. In the event there was a shortage, we’re not entirely confident the illicit wouldn’t be able to creep in and potentially supply the private seller.”

Coun. Andrew Foulds questioned the funding of nearly $130,000 the city would receive from the province for opting in, followed by a second payment of at least the same amount expected in March.

“This just strikes me as peanuts compared to all of the money we generated,” Foulds said. “The police identified in their original report that they’re going to struggle with capacity.”

D.J. O’Connors, who said he is an entrepreneur actively working to try to bring a store to Thunder Bay, encouraged council to opt in.

“Setting up a brick-and-mortar dispensary would be the first step in creating new jobs and getting the ball rolling for new economic activity in the cannabis industry within Northwestern Ontario,” O’Connors said. “As the cannabis market matures, we’ll see streams of economic benefits and job creation within the city and surrounding areas. This will allow for new investment possibilities with tremendous benefit to the economy locally and nationally.”