City recommends endorsing Ontario's pot plan but wants province to commit to funding

A report by the city's municipal licensing and standards department, which will be discussed at city hall Monday, recommends that council endorse the province's plan on pot legalization — though it makes it clear Toronto needs help funding its implementation. 

• Ontario unveils pot plan, including online ordering, 150 stand-alone stores

• 'Doomed to fail': Toronto pot industry reacts to government's new framework

The Ontario government announced a framework to manage the sale and use of marijuana last week. The plan includes an online ordering service, roughly 150 stand-alone stores and a proposed minimum age of 19 to use, purchase and possess recreational cannabis in Ontario.

Tracey Cook, executive director of city's municipal licensing and standards department, said the report aims to "outline areas of interests we believe the city has and should be asking for the province's assistance with."

The newly-formed Ontario Cannabis Consumer Retail Alliance (OCCRA) was also present at city hall Monday.

The group, which describes itself as "working to promote the interests of Ontario cannabis users and retailers," will host a press conference at the conclusion of the meeting to respond to the "unhelpful stigmatization of dispensaries" and push for a public-private sales model. 

'We've been pretty much in a vacuum'

The city wants the province to work with the Toronto Police Service to develop enforcement strategies to eliminate illegal cannabis sales and to make sure the city is properly funded when it comes to implementing those strategies.

The report cites a need for the province to consult directly with the city when it comes to developing regulations for home cultivation of cannabis.

The city also wants the province to take into consideration the city's concerns when it comes to determining which locations will be cannabis storefronts and for the province to "empower the city with municipal enforcement tools to use against storefronts operating illegally."

"We feel it's important our community interests are considered," said Cook. "We would not want to see storefronts happening near high schools or public schools."

City staff have brought together an interdivisional working group to identify concerns regarding the legalization of cannabis and its impact locally.

"Since this federal path to legalization started, a number of city divisions have been meeting to talk about what it could mean of course along the way we've been pretty much in a vacuum because no one knew what was happening," she told CBC Toronto.

The interdivisional group includes staff from the city's Municipal Licensing and Standards department, Toronto Public Health, City Planning, Toronto Fire Services includes Toronto Police Service.

Cook said she's glad to see that "all three levels of government have the [same] primary concerns around the public safety and public health."

The city's recommendations, which Cook says they were working on long before Ontario came out with its framework, indicates that it supports the province's approach. 

"Everybody is coming at this with the right and same intent," said Cook.

City playing 'catch-up'

Coun. Jim Karygiannis, who represents Ward 39, Scarborough-Agincourt and is also a member of the city's licensing and standards committee, says the city is playing "catch-up" and that cannabis storeowners and stakeholders have been wronged by the new framework. 

"Instead of having worked with these folks when they sprouted up and saying okay how do we make sure we legislate you and regulate you ... we waited and the province made the decision," he said. "And right now we're saying give us money so we can go bust them." 

Karygiannis has sent out invitations to the public to ask them to attend Monday's meeting saying "many of the issues we raised last year have not been addressed." 

"This would be an opportunity for the stakeholders for the city, either storeowners or people that are using cannabis, to come and make a deputation to come and speak their mind on the report our executive director wrote and address it," he said.