New Westminster city council wants to consider cannabis shop applications as soon as possible, but it’s divided on the best way of moving forward.
In April, council gave two readings to zoning amendment bylaws for the five properties being considered in the initial intake of cannabis shops: 71 Sixth St.; 540 Ewen Ave.; 710 12th St.; 451 East Columbia St.; and 532 Sixth St. The city has been awaiting the results of financial integrity and security program checks from the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch before scheduling a public hearing for these applications.
“Initially, we didn’t know what the timeline from the LCRB would be to get these checks back to us. We anticipated it would be a relatively short timeline,” said planner Mike Watson. “That hasn’t proven to be the case.”
According to Watson, the city has received one result back from the province, which consisted of a two- or three-line statement.
“We don’t know the timeline from the province to receive the financial integrity and security checks. We have had 22 applications with the city and we have received only one response back, and it was on an application that wasn’t recommended to move forward,” he said. “I suspect there is some time for the province to get through the backlog of applications that they have.”
On Monday, council considered a motion by Coun. Patrick Johnstone that the city hold the public hearings about the five applications but make approval of the applications subject to the applicants getting a satisfactory report from the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch.
“I guess the point is, I don’t know why we are pausing right now if we could possibly move our process forward so that these two processes work in parallel,” Johnstone said. “Frankly, it has been a long time, I think a lot longer than we had anticipated it would be.”
After a lengthy discussion, council voted 4-3 against the motion, deciding to wait for the results of the province’s financial and security checks before holding public hearings.
“We have been contacted by unsuccessful applications, including their legal counsel. We have told them we are waiting for the provincial security and financial clearances before proceeding to the public hearing,” said Craig MacFarlane, the city’s manager of legal services. “My concern is that to change course right now might not be the best, simply to maintain consistency of what we have told everyone.”
Mayor Jonathan Cote and councillors Johnstone and Jaimie McEvoy supported scheduling public hearings for the five current applications, but councillors Chinu Das, Nadine Nakagawa, Chuck Puchmayr and Mary Trentadue opposed and want to wait until the city receives the results of the checks from the province.
Puchmayr said the provincial check is key information for the city to consider.
“This is contentious. We have heard people comment about the process. I don’t want to muddle it any further,” he said. “The process that’s happening right now with the province is part of the public hearing – we are waiting for them to comment on a very important piece of the public hearing. To have the public hearing without that would really be a subjective process. All five could be turned down. We could have this lengthy public hearing and, all of a sudden, none of them qualify by the province. It just seems we are putting the cart before the horse.”
Johnstone said his motivation for going to public hearing is to take away one piece of the uncertainty faced by applicants, as the process is challenging and creates a significant amount of financial risk for the applicants.
“Frankly, it’s going to take us weeks or a month to get a public hearing going anyway. This may drag on to the fall or later,” he said. “I just want to try to deal with the part we can deal with so that we can say to ourselves we have done all we can to get this process transparent, accountable and easy for our applicants to navigate with some certainty.”
Cote said it appears the province’s checks are going to trickle in and won’t come in all at once. If the rezoning applications are considered at a public hearing and the province provides a positive report about one of the applications, he said the city would be able to move forward with that application so the applicant isn’t waiting on the others.
In related news, council approved a motion to create a separate process for consideration of government cannabis stores in New Westminster. As a result of the scoring system implemented by the city, all of the applications being considered at this time are from private operators.
