By Jon Hiltz  

 

This year at the annual Premiers’ Conference taking place in Whitehorse Yukon, the green initiatives up for discussion will include the environment surrounding the upcoming legalization of cannabis across Canada.

The conference has been going strong since 2003 to promote cooperation between the provinces and to foster business discussions. The latter of those two initiatives is significant in the eyes of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, who is eager to talk to her counterparts on how they plan to integrate marijuana into their geographical area. This could mean anything from the minimum age requirement to the hotbed issue of who will be allowed to sell marijuana in Canada.

In this ongoing country-wide discussion, the Premiers of each province have quite a bit of pull and also a semi-open door policy with the man himself, Justin Trudeau, so they are an important part of the process.

Although it is important to note that these substances are vastly different, liquor is being closely looked at due to the fact that it was, once upon a time, a prohibited substance that had to be repatriated. Liquor is controlled provincially across Canada, so the cannabis community is very interested to see which policies Premier Wynne will look to adopt and which will fall by the wayside.

Traditionally, Ontario has been significantly more conservative in their control of substances. The province maintains strict liquor sales at authorized government outlets and only recently loosened the laws enough for wine and beer to be sold in some retail stores. Compare that with our brothers and sisters next door in Quebec; their drinking age is 18 and beer and wine are sold pretty much anywhere you need it.

Wynne has been no slouch in getting on board and figuring out how this will work from a province-wide perspective. She has staff members from 12 provincial departments working on everything from road safety, finance, education, community, social services and a list of others. She has also been open-minded about where pot should be sold, initially touting the LCBO as the best option but now open to other ideas based on comments she has heard from citizens and others involved in the process, as she told The Toronto Star. “It may not even be sold out of the LCBO. Because I’ve had people say to me we don’t want to have marijuana and alcohol sold out of the same places.”

Some of the other Premiers are also looking into the issue quite closely, including Nova Scotia, who is considering whether or not to sell in government-owned liquor outlets. Quebec interestingly enough has said they do not want marijuana sold in liquor stores so it will be fascinating to see how they move forward.

In the end, all this talk among the Premier’s may help, but ultimately it is the decision of the federal government as to whether or not this will even be a provincial issue. Trudeau may decide that The Empire will run things from the top instead of sending his Imperial Battle Cruisers to do the work in each territory.