EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT a recreational cannabis user, you should be concerned about how our governments are handling legal weed.
Here’s why.
Three years ago, Canada legalized the cannabis industry.
As most of us predicted, very little has changed about our society since then.
As Mayor Ken Christian told CFJC‘s Adam Donnelly this week, the sky did not fall. In fact, for some cannabis users, literally nothing changed.
They are still getting their cannabis from the same sources who provided it before legalization.
That’s not good news for the federal government because legalization and regulation of the market also brought taxation — a tidy revenue stream from all of those newly-minted legal cannabis users.
And while that revenue stream keeps the dollars flowing in, there are costs associated with legalization that are borne by governments as well — costs like writing and implementing bylaws, planning and zoning, and enforcement.
The majority of those costs are coming out of municipal coffers, not those federal coffers being filled up by the excise tax revenue.
It only seems right that the revenues generated by cannabis should help pay for the costs, right?
Well, interestingly enough, Ottawa does pass on 75 per cent of its revenue — just not to the cities. It passes them on to the provinces.
So if that money is going to make its way to the cities, it’s the provinces who have to release it.
And some of them have, signing agreements with their municipalities for revenue sharing.
But that’s not the case here in B.C.
In Kamloops, the average ratepayer is footing the bill to set the legal cannabis regime into action, when cannabis users should be doing that via their tax revenues.
It’s been three years, and the province, frankly, is dragging its feet and should come through with this help for their cities and towns.
——
Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.
