Manitoba holds out on federal accord for legalized pot revenue

Finance ministers met in Ottawa Monday to hash out an agreement over tax revenues from the sale of legalized marijuana. Manitoba, however, did not sign.

READ MORE: Ottawa agrees to give provinces 75% of marijuana tax revenue

Speaking on CJOB from Ottawa Tuesday, Cameron Friesen, provincial finance minister said the ministers had specific outcomes in mind going into the meeting and those were not sufficiently met.

“It is provincial responsibility, provincial risk and provincial cost that is the lens through which we’ve always seen this issue. Our focus is on safety to Manitobans, both those who will use this product and those who choose not to. Going into the meeting our approach was maximum tax revenue needs to be situated with the provinces to be able to deal with these risks and responsibilities that they will be charged with.

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In the course of the meeting, things shifted… we simply need more time at this point to determine whether the federal framework is indeed the best path forward for Manitoba” Friesen said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: In the course of the meeting, things shifted… we simply need more time at this point to determine whether the federal framework is indeed the best path forward for Manitoba" Friesen said.

All other ministers signed the national agreement.

Friesen said all provinces agreed on key principles, including keeping products out of the hands of kids, shutting out the black market, on keeping taxation low.

However, he said they had also agreed to a predetermined goal of revenue sharing and the 75:25 split was not what they were looking for, since the provinces will be the ones shouldering the weight of pot legalization.

“We need to run the calculator again. We need to understand when it comes to total taxation. We need to be able to guarantee that expenditures will not run above revenues on this,” Friesen said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We need to run the calculator again. We need to understand when it comes to total taxation. We need to be able to guarantee that expenditures will not run above revenues on this," Friesen said.

“We’re faced with the tremendous cost, we’ve got some more thinking to do before we know if our name should be on that accord”.

The province unveiled their plan for managing legalized marijuana Dec. 5.

READ MORE: Manitoba says no to homegrown pot, unveils legal age to buy

As for what happens if the province doesn’t sign the federal accord, Friesen said Manitoba that they can still apply taxes to the sale of marijuana over and above the federal tax if they don’t sign the agreement.

“This is clearly not a question of tax or no tax,” Friesen said.