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But given the financial burden the new rules will put on municipalities, Calgary’s mayor is adamant the city needs a share of the federal government’s tax revenues.

“We’re looking north of $10 million a year, so it’s incredibly important that any revenue that is gained from cannabis sales, the excise tax on cannabis sales, be shared directly with the municipalities,” the mayor said.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has pitched a revenue-sharing model that would allocate one-third of cannabis excise tax revenues to municipalities, with the remaining two-thirds split between the federal and provincial governments — a model Nenshi supports.

“That makes a lot of sense. That’s what we’re pushing for,” Nenshi said.

Federation of Canadian Municipalities president Jenny Gerbasi said in a statement released Wednesday that local governments are on the front lines of implementing the federal legislation and the one-third split is “fair and achievable.”

“A smart revenue model will recognize that three orders of government are in this together,” Gerbasi said in the statement.

The mayor said in recent days the feds have shown they’re willing to be flexible on the revenue-sharing model and he’s hopeful a solution will be reached.

“Ideally, it would be a situation where some of that federal tax money flows directly to the municipality and doesn’t have to stop off at the province on the way,” he said.

The council committee also heard Thursday the city has so far received 11,800 responses to its online survey seeking input from Calgary residents on various issues related to the looming legalization.

While the city is waiting on the province for more details surrounding areas of legalization such as the licensing and zoning of marijuana stores, the city expects stores to open in less than seven months.

“We’re doing our best to ensure businesses would have the ability to open their doors come July,” Matt Zabloski, the lead for the City of Calgary’s cannabis legalization project, told the council committee.

— With files from The Canadian Press