The City of Edmonton is moving to a lottery-based system to determine who gets development permits to sell marijuana once its recreational use becomes legal in Canada.
The two-stage process would have applicants submit an Expression of Interest (EOI), which would then enter them in a lottery to determine the order which applicants can submit their application package for review.
Watch below: In April, Julia Wong filed this report about a report heading to an Edmonton committee for debate that recommends the development permit and licensing fees for cannabis stores should cost applicants $8,100.
Development permit applications are typically accepted and reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis.
The city argued a lottery-type system for licenses will make decision-making more impartial.
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“There’s a lot of interest in setting up cannabis businesses in Edmonton from a variety of proponents from a variety of capacities,” Ward 10 Councillor Michael Walters said. “What we heard from most people, not everybody but from most people, is that this lottery process was the best way to do that.”
“The EOI process that is a fair way to at least get your queue in line so I’m happy they decided to do it that way rather than pitching a tent on the street and waiting in line,” Clair’s Cannabis owner Tracy Gunderson said.
READ MORE: Edmonton committee to debate permit, licensing fees for recreational pot shops
Watch below: On May 1, 2018, Kendra Slugoski filed this report about the City of Edmonton mapping out how cannabis and the stores that sell it will be allowed to operate.
The proposed bylaw has been opposed by some potential recreational pot retailers.
Nathan Mison, vice-president of government and stakeholder relations with Fire & Flower, said the lottery system provides too much uncertainty for potential cannabis retailers.
Mison said he doesn’t like that retailers, like Fire & Flower, which have already gone through an approval process through the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission (AGLC), aren’t given any advantage over license applicants who haven’t gone through the AGLC first.
He said the process is unfair to “those who have put money forward, who are paying leases, who are paying out of their savings.”
READ MORE: City council committee discusses how late to allow cannabis stores to stay open in Edmonton
The AGLC approves retailers for the provincial operating licenses, while the City of Edmonton does development permits and business licenses.
Among other elements of the proposed cannabis plan are for there to be 200 metres between a cannabis store and a school or public library, 100 metres between a cannabis store and a park, recreation centre, or provincial health-care facility and 200 metres between cannabis stores.
It’s not known how many corporations or individual entrepreneurs will submit development permit applications, but there is an estimate that it’ll be around 200.
Once a permit is granted, the business will have nine months to be up and running.
With files from Phil Heidenreich
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