Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion

People are invited to attend a town hall meeting next week to discuss the implications of new cannabis legislation expected to be adopted later in the year.

The Kindersley RCMP and Town of Kindersley are hosting the town hall meeting on Cannabis Legislation at the Elks Hall on Feb. 27 starting at 7 p.m. Provinces and municipalities across Canada are preparing for the federal government’s pending legalization of cannabis.

It was last reported that the federal government plans to legalize cannabis by the summer of 2018, but it will not be legalized by July 1. Bill C-45, an Act respecting cannabis and to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the Criminal Code and other Acts, is now waiting to be passed for its second reading before the Senate.

Bill C-45 passed its third and final reading in the House of Commons on Nov. 27, a day before it passed its first reading in the Senate. The Bill was before the Senate on Feb. 15. The legislation was first introduced in April 2017.

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There will be a brief presentation at Tuesday’s town hall meeting, and then people will get the opportunity to address questions and concerns. According to the town, any feedback will help council to make decisions regarding items such as cannabis retail outlets and zoning restrictions among others.

Mayor Rod Perkins said RCMP detachments have been given a mandate to conduct town hall meetings with respect to cannabis legislation, so the town and RCMP decided to hold a meeting in conjunction with each other.

He noted that cannabis legalization has become a “fairly significant and contentious” topic, so he believes the general public has the right to participate in the discussion about how the change should be handled by the municipality. Perkins said feedback from the public would help town council to make informed decisions.

The mayor said he hopes people get out to the meeting and take a civil approach to the subject matter. People will be asked to show their support or opposition for ideas and to keep it clean, but also to present their concerns to town officials, he said.

“I just encourage everybody to come and be prepared to both speak and listen,” he said, recognizing that there will be an open mike at the meeting for people to share feedback and town officials are working on questions to ask the public.

Perkins said council members are trying to determine an approach to take, but it is no simple task. There was an educational session on cannabis legalization at the recent Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities convention in Regina. He added that from what he has heard, not local governments, but the provincial government or the federal government is ready for the legislation to be passed to become law.

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