Surveys in Essex and Kingsville suggest the public are overwhelmingly in favour of retail cannabis stores in their towns, but will their town councils opt-in?
Councillors in those towns will debate it Monday night.
Municipalities across Ontario have until January 22 to opt-out of hosting pot shops, and a report to Windsor City Council said as of January 8, 55 cities had decided to allow them, while only 27 decided to opt-out. Decisions are still pending in another 333 municipalities, including Windsor which will hold its debate next week.
Surveys have been conducted in all three municipalities. In Essex, 80 per cent of the 1,104 respondents said they were in favour of hosting pot shops.
The results of those in favour in Kingsville were lower, but still suggest a substantial majority of residents are either resigned that marijuana is now legal and should be sold at retail stores, or were enthusiastically in favour. A total of 350 people responded to that survey.
So far, only Leamington has opted-in in Windsor-Essex. Tecumseh, LaSalle, and Lakeshore have all chosen to take a more cautious approach; opt-out now and study the impact on other municipalities that decide to host the stores. Amherstburg has not yet made a decision, but plans to on January 21.
New Windsor City Hall is seen on May 24, 2018. Photo by Mark Brown/Blackburn News.
The report from Windsor's administration also appears to suggest city council should adopt a wait-and-see attitude.
"Given the risks associated with opting in, the great number of unknowns about what the cannabis landscape may look like in the future, and the inability to opt-out at a later date, the more cautious approach is to opt-out now with the possibility of opting-in later following observation of the experience of other municipalities that have opted in," Windsor's administration said in the report.
Of the seven municipalities in Windsor-Essex, only Windsor qualifies for a license now. The province only plans to give out 25 retail licenses, and just in cities that express an interest in hosting stores and have a population of over 50,000 residents. Seven of those retail licenses will be handed out in the West Region of which Windsor is a part.
Should Windsor opt-in, it will qualify for a first-time payment of $253,279 to help cover costs associated with transitioning to retail sales. The Ford government has also set aside $10 million to cover unforeseen expenses.
Windsor's public survey also showed the solid majority of residents support the ability to buy recreational marijuana in a store-like setting. Of the 7,941 respondents both inside the city and out, only 18.4 per cent voted against it. Of respondents living exclusively in Windsor-Essex, 81 per cent favoured opting-in.
Municipalities will have no say where the stores are located. The only restriction is they be at least 150 metres away from any school. No matter how residents voted on whether to allow pot shops, most on both sides of the debate expressed concern about the location of storefronts in the future.
Right now, legal cannabis is only available online through the Ontario Cannabis Store.