By Sheldon Spackman

Bylaw changes address cannabis retail in Sylvan Lake

Sep 12, 2018 | 2:50 PM

The Town of Sylvan Lake is another step closer to being ready for cannabis legalization in Canada on October 17.

On Monday, town council passed an amendment to its Business Licensing Bylaw which addresses future potential cannabis retail stores in the community.

Town Communications Officer Joanne Gaudet says it’s a two-part licensing system that allows cannabis retail sales applicants to proceed with the provincial cannabis retail store license process, while protecting the interests of the municipality.

“With the previous Business Licensing Bylaw, it didn’t have definitions or any sort of specific to cannabis regulations,” she explains. “This new bylaw now defines the use, the type of business that we would or would not approve and also outlines the licensing process and the fees associated, as well as any enforcement fees or issues as well.”

Part one of the licensing process involves an Administrative License for a one-time fee of $850. An Administrative License is only utilized by the licensee to assist in obtaining their provincial cannabis retail store license from the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission (AGLC).

Individuals aged 55 and over

Central Alberta Older Adult Employment Strategy Assessment Project full report released

8h ago

UPDATE

Red Deer Polytechnic confirms student death on-campus

12h ago

retrofitting building

Carnival Cinemas applies to rezone for residential development

13h ago

Part two pertains to the Operational License which has an annual fee of $150 and is issued only after a provincial cannabis retail store license has been granted from the AGLC.

“The two-part licensing process protects the interests of the municipality in that it ensures no cannabis retail sales business operates within the community without first receiving provincial approval – a process that includes a rigorous background check,” adds Ken Kalirai, Director of Planning and Development, in a press release. “The additional fee is associated with the increase in the amount of work required by administration to process the license.”

Gaudet says The Town started accepting retail cannabis applications for development permits as of August 13.

“We are well underway with the acceptance of these applications and the review of these applications,” states Gaudet. “Now that we’ve got the business bylaw in place, we will be able to start processing those applications as well.”

Gaudet adds however there is one more town bylaw associated with the legalization of cannabis but it deals mostly with consumption.

“We have received first and second reading of the Cannabis Consumption Bylaw and we will only bring the third reading forward just prior to legalization,” states Gaudet. “That will affect our community probably more so in terms of regulating because it does define the areas where one may or may not consume recreational cannabis.”

To obtain development approval, cannabis retailers must be located in areas zoned for those kinds of businesses such as highway commercial, other specific commercial areas and part of Centennial Street.

Cannabis retailers will not however be permitted on Lakeshore Drive or within 150 metres of facilities such as schools, healthcare and recreation facilities, playgrounds or other cannabis retailers.

Gaudet says a couple of cannabis retail applications have come in so far and they’ve recently been reviewed for completeness.

“Our MPC (Municipal Planning Commission) meeting on Monday will be the first we see some of these applications come to our development authority,” reveals Gaudet. “We’re pretty confident in where we are. Certainly this is new to all of us in terms of managing the legalization process and the potential business side of things so we are constantly watching and learning and anticipating how this will all work out.”    

For more information on retail cannabis applications in Sylvan Lake, click here.