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The Union of B.C. Municipalities has worked through many of the details related to cannabis retail sales with the province, but the cost-sharing arrangement remains unresolved, said president Arjun Singh, who is also a Kamloops city councillor.

Photo by UBCM / PNG

“We have asked for detailed negotiations on that topic, but we aren’t there yet,” he said.

Local governments are seeking 40 per cent of the excise tax revenue that flows to the province, to be distributed based on population, according to the UBCM.

“This recognizes two things,” he said. “Local governments have costs associated with cannabis legalization, and we received assurances from the federal and provincial government that revenue would flow to address that, but also that there would be revenue over and above those expenses.”

The UBCM has asked its members for a tally of how much they have spent on legal fees, reviewing retail license applications, conducting inspections, making bylaw amendments, advertising and running public consultations.

The survey anticipates that many costs will be incurred across several departments and may require new staff positions.

Singh would like to see all municipalities and Indigenous governments receive a $10,000 “base share” of the revenue, whether they allow recreational cannabis retailing or not.

Only 12 B.C. municipalities and one First Nation have legal retail outlets for non-medical cannabis. Kamloops has the only government-run shop, but has plans to open 13 more.

“Many communities border each other, so impacts and enforcement will be cross-jurisdictional, like Richmond and Vancouver or Surrey and White Rock,” he said.

The federal government purposely made room in the tax for local governments to benefit, but it is up to individual provinces to make that happen, he said.

“The province has agreed to negotiate. What remains to be seen is what is the right amount,” said Singh. “What the province needs to understand is that we are incurring costs that are quite significant and have been for some time.”

rshore@postmedia.com