PENHOLD – With legalized cannabis a fact in town and across the country concerned residents packed town council for a pubic hearing on the town’s cannabis amendments in the Land Use Bylaw.
Kristina Schmidt, planning and development officer with the Town of Penhold, presented several changes to the bylaw on Oct. 22, including regulations pertaining to cannabis retail sales and cannabis stores in Penhold.
Council heard concerns from residents and answered questions about the divisive issue, after recreational cannabis use became legal across the country on Oct. 17.
“Municipalities in Alberta don’t have the option to not allow them,” said mayor Mike Yargeau. “I think we tried to address those concerns within the bylaw while still striking a good balance that makes it work for our town.
“We’re very similar to what other smaller municipalities are doing as far as their setbacks.”
Council did make some changes regarding distances from cannabis retail stores.
“The one major setback was, we changed (the) 10 metres from a daycare to 100 metres to make it the same as schools and community centres,” said Yargeau, noting the changes in distance came in light of feedback from both council and the community.
“That was something council wanted to see and also feedback we got from residents. It was a way we thought we could strengthen the bylaw,” he said.
“I think it’s important that we respect the roles of each government. From the town side we worked within what our role and responsibility was here,” Yargeau added. “We set some setbacks which limit where retail operations can go.”
Council passed second and third reading of the bylaw that evening by a close 4 to 3 vote. Councillors Ken Denson, Shawn Hamm and Shaun Kranenborg all opposed.
The town will now look into the Business License Bylaw to potentially limit the number of business licences granted for cannabis stores in Penhold.
“From our side right now, the concern is we have limited commercial space,” said Yargeau. “We don’t want to over-saturate our limited commercial space with retail cannabis stores, so until we can expand our commercial area maybe we need to look at capping the number.”
Penhold resident Mike Doerksen was one of several who attended the public hearing to voice his concerns over legalized cannabis.
“I have a general concern for this topic and this issue,” said Doerksen.
“The Government of Canada has allowed this to happen and we don’t have the ability to say no you can’t sell cannabis, but we don’t need to make it easy for the retail of cannabis to come in and nor do I think we should.”
Doerksen said he wasn’t happy with the setbacks and distances from retail cannabis stores.
“I think we can do more,” he said, noting the new territory for the municipality and citizens.
“That’s why I think we have to offer them a little bit of grace but in the same token, I think our elected officials still need to be held to task and explain why they’re making the decisions they’re making,” said Doerksen.
