Sechelt council has asked staff to investigate zoning and business licence options for sales, production and supply of marijuana and marijuana-related products and services in the hopes of finding a form of regulation in Sechelt.
Council released the motion from an in-camera meeting during its April 13 regular council meeting.
The motion passed unanimously and there was no discussion on it. However, later in the meeting while discussing policing priorities for the upcoming year, Mayor Bruce Milne suggested the Sunshine Coast RCMP should not make marijuana a main concern.
“I think there should be a note to the RCMP not in terms of their priorities, but what should not be a priority,” Milne said.
“There are laws of the land that are currently under review and changing as we speak on the advice of the prime minister, and I would think that those laws as they affect adults in the community should not be a priority of the RCMP. And I think we could signal the values of our community and the values of the federal government by suggesting that they take some things as high priorities and serious and other things they should see as not the highest priority in our community.”
Sechelt CAO Tim Palmer suggested the direction would likely be welcomed by the RCMP.
He said that during a recent meeting with Sunshine Coast RCMP about enforcement of federal laws relating to marijuana, the police expressed “concerns of putting too much effort in an area that’s a moving target as far as federal legislation.”
“The RCMP indicated they were pleased we were looking at regulatory aspects in our framework, not interfering at all in the federal level, but as a regulatory part of regulating our types of businesses, including possibly emerging businesses in the future,” Palmer said.
Staff was directed to draft a letter to the RCMP outlining the district’s policing priorities for the upcoming year and to bring that draft letter back to a future council meeting for approval.
