Comments for cannabis store locations

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

A cannabis store is coming to Oshawa, that’s a certainty, where it will be located is still up in there, and the City of Oshawa wants to know what you think.

Following a recommendation from staff during the most recent meeting of the Development Services committee, council is looking to host a public meeting in order to gather any comments from citizens or business owners on where they believe the future Ontario Cannabis Store, to be run by the LCBO, should be located in Oshawa.

The move is in fact a step above the requirements set out by the LCBO when it comes to choosing locations for these stores.

According to Paul Ralph, the city’s commissioner of development services, initially, all the provincial liquor board was looking for were any notes from Oshawa staff in regards to the future location. However, Ralph says they weren’t comfortable making that call.

“I think council wanted to have am or open and transparent process in communicating back to the LCBO on what the city’s position is on siting locational criteria,” he says. “But they wanted to hear from residents and businesses and stakeholders about what do they think the right location should be.”

As it stands now, under Oshawa’s zoning, a cannabis store would fall into the broad category of a retail store, permitting various location options for a future shop. However, this can run into problems when such locations are near schools or other potentially vulnerable populations or organizations.

According to the city report, the province has indicated that they will follow municipal zoning bylaws, but in truth, there’s no requirement for them to do so.

“The province is not obligated to respect the municipal zoning bylaws as they are exempt from compliance with the bylaw due to their Crown Rights,” the report reads.

With that said, the province has released a set of draft guidelines for the site selection process of the cannabis stores, which note that along with adhering to municipal bylaws, it will take into consideration proximity to schools, equitable access for customers, illegal storefront activity, and other relevant information provided by municipalities.

“I think in this particular case council did the right thing by saying, okay, let’s go and consult with the public and other stakeholders,” Ralph says.

The Region’s health department has also stepped forward and has recommended a few additional items for the province to consider when thinking about locating their legal weed shops, in particular, considering their proximity to such things like child care centres, post-secondary schools, LCBO stores, casinos, healthcare facilities, long-term care homes, recreation centres, and “high priority neighbourhoods where there is a higher degree of crime or higher socioeconomic disparity.”

And while the City of Oshawa has remained mostly mum on their thoughts around the potential location, they have recommended that these stores should be located within large shopping centres where adequate parking is provided, and should be located on arterial roads with good access to public transit

Along with the future public meeting and feedback, a date for which has yet to be set, the city can benefit from the fact that the first batch of municipalities will be opening Ontario Cannabis Stores ahead of them.

In early 2017, the province had released the names of a number of municipalities that would be the homes for future cannabis stores. However, it wasn’t until December that they released the full list of 29 cities that would be the homes of 40 Ontario Cannabis Store locations, including locations in Oshawa, Ajax and Whitby.

Ralph says that the city has been in contact with the municipalities that were got the word before Oshawa and can now learn from their efforts to cement in proper zoning regulations and other criteria.

The final vote on initiating the public process will to go council on April 9, and as part of the recommendation, the city is seeking to request a staff member from the LCBO to be present at any public meeting in order to answer questions from staff and residents.