ST. CATHARINES — Regional stakeholders had the opportunity to provide input on the legalization and regulation of cannabis during a round-table discussion with the parliamentary secretary to the minister of justice and Attorney General of Canada.

In February, Bill Blair set out on a cross-country tour to meet with stakeholders in different communities about the federal government’s commitment to legalizing and regulating cannabis. While he’s already made a trip to British Columbia and plans on heading to the east coast, Blair said he’s been primarily focusing on Ontario including visits to Sault Ste. Marie, London, Kitchener, Waterloo, York and Peel regions, and on Thursday, a visit to Brock University to meet with Niagara stakeholders.

“I’ve been speaking with quite a variety of officials, people from municipal governments, public health, problematic substance use,” he said.

Representatives from the Niagara Region, its public health division, Niagara College, Brock University, St. Catharines Fire and Emergency Services, Niagara Emergency Medical Services, and the City of St. Catharines were on hand for the roundtable.

“This is a process. A process of establishing an effective and comprehensive regulatory framework for the control of cannabis in its production, distribution, and in retail and consumption. In order to get this right, we’ve gone and gotten advice from experts in the areas of public health, justice, public safety and problematic substance use; but in the development and implementation of legislation and regulations, it’s really important to maintain an effective dialogue with people who are actually in the delivery of services right on the ground,” he said, adding they were talking about not just what they’re going to do, but why they’re doing it.

The task force on cannabis legalization and regulation tabled its report to the federal government in December with a number of regulation recommendations. Legislation is slated to be introduced this spring. Blair said in the coming months, the plan is to integrate some of the comments and concerns he hears on his tour into the final document.

“It’s really helpful to me to come and hear the concerns of school boards and people who work in public health, and put people who know that they’re going to have some enforcement responsibility in the regulatory regime — reminding us that in order to do their end of this, they’re going to need training and resources, and an authority to actually get these things done,” he said.

Being an agricultural community, he said Niagara had a lot of expertise in dealing with regulation — particularly when it came to industries like wine — that can be tapped into for this process.

“It’s useful when you come down here and there’s a great deal of expertise already,” he said.

While there were no representatives from the Canada Border Services Agency present at the meeting on Thursday, Blair said there has been significant dialogue going on with the agency. He said they’re very mindful of border issues and the specific impact it could have on border communities like Niagara.