Cannabis won’t become legal in Ontario until Oct. 17, but municipalities must decide if they want it to be legal within their own communities.

Elliot Lake Mayor Dan Marchisella, who just returned from the AMO Conference held in Ottawa last week, said, “They’re going to give municipalities one opportunity to opt out.”

In a telephone interview, the mayor said municipalities will be able to choose to keep cannabis illegal in their communities with a bylaw.

“If you opt out, you opt out of your portion of the tax revenue,” said Marchisella, who learned at last week’s conference that there will be new provincial downloading onto municipalities.

“Taxation from cannabis will go to offset some of that downloading,” he said, adding that the issue of legalization in the community would have to be the first order of business following the municipal elections as the province’s plan for cannabis legalization must be adopted by bylaw by each community.

“If opt out, it would be illegal.”

If a municipality doesn’t opt out, they can pass a bylaw for areas in the communities where smoking cannabis will not be permitted such as the downtown core. The mayor said it is already illegal to smoke in parks where children may be playing.

“There will be financial benefits to all municipalities that adopt the provincial plan,” said Marchisella, adding that store fronts and grow ops would provide jobs and tax revenue for the municipality.

To date, the mayor has already had two parties contact him about opening a retail outlet and a couple have contacted him about the potential of operating a grow op in the area.

Marchisella said that those holding a medical card to legally smoke cannabis, “all the rules and legislation that’s going to be passed won’t apply.”

“It’s frustrating,” said Marchisella adding that even though the issue has been decided by the province, “they’ve turned it into an election issue.”

“We ended up walking away with more questions than answers,” said the Mayor about information provided at AMO.

Some information provided by the provincial government regarding the legalization of cannabis includes:

On Oct. 17, 2018, the date that recreational cannabis becomes legal, the Ontario Cannabis Store website will be the only legal option to purchase recreational cannabis.

You must be 19 years of age or older to legally use recreational cannabis.

You are not allowed to smoke in any public places, workplaces or motorized vehicles.

You will be able to grow up to four plants per residence from seeds purchased from Ontario Cannabis Store website beginning on Oct. 17.

You are legally allowed to have 30 grams (about one ounce) of cannabis in your possession at any time.

The Ontario private retail model will be established by Apr. 1, 2019.