BURLINGTON - City council voted to "not opt out" of retail cannabis stores, paving the way for in-person cannabis sales in Burlington as early as this spring.

Council also voted Monday night to create a citizen task force to provide input on guidelines related to such stores.

Ward 4 Coun. Shawna Stolte and Ward 6 Coun. Angelo Bentivegna were the lone voices against the stores. Mayor Marianne Meed Ward put forward the motion and encouraged her colleagues to get onside. She said the city's public consultation showed residents support retail cannabis, and there are many more citizens who voiced their support to her but are too nervous to put their names on the record.

"Many people raised it (during the election campaign) and they're not the folks you think are using this product," she said. "A large number of seniors have gotten off opioids, and now turned to using this product. Some have a prescription and some don't. They're not going to come to city council and expose themselves. They're not going to risk the stigma that still comes with pot."

The vote came at about 10:20 p.m., after a lengthy question-and-answer session between councillors and city staff, and six delegations from members of the public. Council rules required the meeting end by a hard deadline of 10:30 p.m.

Four delegates to council spoke in favour, while two were opposed, a ratio in line with the results of the city's public consultation. About 63 per cent of 2,718 respondents who took an online survey over the last month supported having retail cannabis stores in Burlington. At a town hall Meed Ward hosted on Dec. 12, 82 per cent of 102 attendees were in support of retail cannabis stores. A majority of respondents from each ward supported the outlets except those in Ward 6, where 48 per cent are in support.

On Saturday, the province released a list of the first 25 retailers eligible to be granted licences, including six to be located in the Greater Toronto Area, of which Halton Region is considered a part. Those retailers must go through several more hoops before receiving final approval, after which they will be able to open a store anywhere within their designated region that is allowing retail stores.

Several members of the cannabis industry who spoke on Monday said that Burlington can only benefit from the economic opportunities of legalization if it welcomes cannabis-related business. Mark Upsdell, the CEO of Rapid Dose Therapeutics, pointed to estimates by Canada's parliamentary budget officer that Ontario could sell between $2.1 and $2.3 billion in retail cannabis annually.

Upsdell's company, which has a facility at Walker's Line and the QEW, manufactures medicine strips that dissolve orally. He said Rapid Dose is working with a cannabis producer to create a new line of products, and will be hiring dozens of employees locally to produce the product.

"Making this stuff, you want traceability, quality control and accountability," he said. "I think opting in (to retail sales) is the right thing to do."

Meed Ward said the legal retail stores are expected to hire about 15 employees each.

A staff report presented at the meeting noted the city has already received $93,063 from the provincial government to offset the cost associated with legalization. A further payment is expected for municipalities that opt in, but that amount has not been disclosed. More information is expected after the province's Jan. 22 opt-out deadline.

Christine Wei was one of two delegates to speak against allowing the stores. She said members of the city's Chinese community had collected 280 signatures against the idea, suggesting it would make the drug more accessible to children, make the city more dangerous and contribute to additional second-hand smoke.

She claimed that murders had risen by 25 per cent in four U.S. states that legalized marijuana, a statistic that Meed Ward questioned. Wei was unable to provide its source, but added that more access to cannabis means more people will smoke it.

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"This is Pandora's box. Once you open it, it will be a disaster."

- Legal pot shops will be allowed in Hamilton come April 1