Alberta minors will be prohibited from consuming or purchasing vaping products under new legislation introduced Tuesday, but the province will not immediately ban or restrict flavours.

If passed, the legislation would set the minimum age for purchasing, possessing, and consuming products at 18 and restrict any sharing of products to youth under that age. It would also align with and expand on federal and provincial tobacco laws by banning usage in public areas, including playgrounds, around hospitals, sports fields, and on school properties.

What happened: B.C. may change its Cannabis Control and Licensing Act  to allow legal private cannabis retailers to conduct e-commerce sales, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth told Business in Vancouver in an exclusive interview.

Why this matters: The change would put legal cannabis retailers on a level playing field with the provincial government’s BC Cannabis Stores website as well as black-market operators that illegally sell cannabis online.

B.C. Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth told BIV that he is open to allowing all licensed cannabis retailers to sell online.

While social programs have expanded immensely in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic, government authorities have also relaxed many regulations that were once deemed near-impossible to change — such as when and where alcohol can be sold, or who is allowed to deliver cannabis to you.

From health-care licensing to food labelling, deregulation has become one of the responses to try and expedite otherwise lengthier approval processes during a health crisis. 

But multiple levels of government will, presumably, have to decide which changes should stick in the post COVID-world.

So what if cannabis is legal? Some residents of West Nipissing in northern Ontario argue weed stinks and they don’t want the smell in their town.

As a result, town council is examining an odour bylaw that would restrict what some say is pungent smells emanating from legal weed operations.

Any such move could cement the community’s apparent view of pot. Currently, the municipality does not allow smoking cannabis on sidewalks, but smoking cigarettes is fine and dandy.

Another week,

“Politics, convenience and product.” These are the three reasons long-time cannabis consumer Andrew gives for using the illicit market rather than legal stores.

It’s been more than 18 months since Canada legalized weed, but the 54-year-old Nova Scotian prefers to buy from an illicit cannabis website. “I’ve simply been told by people that they’re not happy with the product or the price. So I’m just not going to try,” he says.

The Edmonton Public Library is challenging three decisions by the city's development appeal board allowing cannabis stores to open within 200 metres of its branches.

The Court of Appeal of Alberta has granted the city's library board leave to appeal decisions made by Edmonton's development appeal board.

The city's bylaws require a distance of at least 200 metres between a cannabis retail store and a public library.

The development appeal board has the authority to grant an exemption to that requirement under the Municipal Government Act

They haven’t ruled it out, but they haven’t committed to it either. The Ford government has allowed restaurants to sell booze to go, either for takeout or delivery, and allowed cannabis shops to deliver for the last while due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Will they let it stay once we start returning to “normal”?

The question was put to Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prabmeet Sarkaria, Ford’s Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction.

“There’s gonna be a lot of things, as we say, the new way of doing business and not only in government, but in the private sector too,” Ford said Monday during his regular update.

Prince Edward Island required its four licensed cannabis retail locations to take protective measures when they reopened May 22, but wearing masks was reportedly not among them.

Beyond allowing only “limited access,” namely restricting the number of location occupants, mandatory measures in PEI Cannabis stores included having physical distancing both inside and outside stores, general screening regarding compliance with self-isolation demands prior to entry into the businesses, and no cash transactions for the time being.

One northern Ontario town is looking for a way to make smelly cannabis plants illegal.

West Nipissing council wants to draft a bylaw to regulate the odour from the four marijuana plants each Ontario resident is legally now allowed to grow.

Councillor Lise Senecal put the issue on the table after getting complaints from several residents in Sturgeon Falls.

"I didn't even have to get out. I just rolled down my window," she says of going to check out the skunk-like stink.

"It's a very strong smell. I could have gotten a buzz."

She says the right to enjoy your own property is a "basic right" and wants to see cannabis smell listed as a nuisance in a town bylaw, similar to what the City of Hamilton has already passed.