By Tanya Cronin

City of Kamloops given power to say no to pot shops

Feb 6, 2018 | 4:04 PM

KAMLOOPS — According to the province’s latest cannabis retail laws announced this week, city governments will be able to decide whether to allow pot shops.

Victoria is giving mayors and council the power to determine where pot retailers can open in their communities, and the authority to impose other rules as they see fit. The Mayor of Kamloops says the regulations generally reflect what this city was looking for, and is happy they’ve been given control.

“It will be really up to us to look at zoning requirements whether or not we want to see buffer zones, whether we want to see these things seperated and there seems to be a clear indication that marijuana and liquor should be seperated. We have to get on with it with our development and engineering department, and look at our zoning, business license bylaws and then we have to make recommendations that we make for primary or bars,” says Ken Christian, mayor of Kamloops.

July 2018 is only the beginning, staff and council have a lot of work to do to come up with a cannabis policy in the coming months. Christian says the Kamloops retail sector are already lining up looking for approval for license locations.

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: John Horgan had 'the gift'

8h ago

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: New 'iconic' Kamloops tourist attraction in development

22h ago

Question of the Week

Would you be inconvenienced by a postal strike?

Nov 12, 2024

“I think in Kamloops realistically, we would probably be seeing anywhere between 10 and 20 of these kinds of retail dispensaries set up, and we’ll see where they’re going to be located and the public will have input into what that looks like in Kamloops,” says Christian.