With the legalization of cannabis around the corner, Lethbridge City Council is encouraging residents to attend a community issues committee meeting later this month to learn what it’s going to mean for the community.

A panel of independent specialists will be on hand to provide information to City Council members and the public on various aspects of cannabis legalization including the legal framework, provincial regulations and local land-use planning.

Councillor Jeff Carlson says they hold CIC meetings fairly regularly on off Mondays, but when there’s something bubbling in the community that they think a lot of people might have an interest in they try to plan something special.

“We hold it in the evening so that more and more community members come down. We’re going to be talking about the legalization of cannabis and the impacts it will have in the community mostly on zoning and bylaws. We’re basically just asking the public to come down, ask some questions, hear from the presenters and see how everything rolls out,” Carlson said.

The meeting will be held on Monday, May 28 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Council Chambers.

The legal frameworks will be one of the bigger parts of the discussion, and Carlson says they’ll have representatives from legal firms talking about the federal legislation, the provincial legislation and then they’ll have their own staff talking about how it impacts Lethbridge.

“We’re hoping people will come down to see the presentations from experts, because city council is not the experts here, so we’re bringing in folks who know.”

The full list of topic areas and panel members include:

- Federal & Provincial Legal Framework – Kelsey L. Becker Brookes, Reynolds Mirth Richards & Farmer LLP

- Provincial Regulations – Graham Wadsworth, Alberta Gaming & Liquor Commission

- Local Land-use Planning – Jeff Greene, City of Lethbridge

This meeting, according to Carlson, is basically to just clear up any misconceptions or thoughts that are out there.

“This is not really a municipal jurisdiction this is a federal rollout, and they downloaded a lot to the province, so the feds and the province are handling most of the legal things,” he continued. “What the municipalities are in charge of is crafting the bylaws because our smoking bylaw doesn’t talk about cannabis, so we need to make some changes there.”

Zoning is the other big one, and council will be looking at where cannabis can be sold at retail outlets.

“What we want is clear up is who’s in charge of what and how folks can get better information. Right now, the only piece of legislation we have on the table is our land-use bylaw and we’re amending it to add the word cannabis so that can have other bylaws around it,” Carlson stated.

He also added the city is changing zoning bylaws right now to sort of say these are the areas in the city where someone could open a business.

“Our Planning Manager Jeff Green has a lot of information on where schools are located, and what a buffer zone around schools, childcare facilities, and healthcare facilities would look like. That’s all to be rolled out.”

The Government of Canada introduced legislation to legalize, regulate and restrict access to cannabis on April 13, 2017. There have been some delays due to the Senate of Canada, although a final vote on the bill is expected by June 7, a timetable aimed at allowing the federal government to meet its commitment to having retail sales of legal marijuana available by late this summer.

“The legislation has been held up in the Senate since November, and that’s been a big issue, but once that passes through we’ll have even better information about how it will impact us locally,” Carlson said.

When asked if it’s frustrating at a municipal level to know that cannabis will be legalized, but not have all the details yet, Carlson says it’s always better to have more information before having to change land-use bylaws.

“The feds made this a promise and they’re going through with it so we’re not alone. All municipalities are scrambling to catch up, but the provincial guidelines are already rolling out so we’re having to harmonize our bylaws with those,” Carlson added.

As far as what council has been hearing from the public, Carlson says they’ve gotten calls on either side of the issue.

“We’re getting calls from folks who want to open up a retail location who are saying ‘Where can I, what are the steps, and what’s the process look like?’ We’re also getting calls from the folks who are concerned saying ‘I run a daycare in a commercial zone, could someone open up a cannabis store next-door?’ Those are the things we’re hearing not really a lot of the pros or cons of legalization because that ship is sailed, it’s happening.”

Carlson encouraged anyone interested in the topic, who may not be able to make the meeting, to email in their questions in advance by May 22 or to check out more background information here.