Cannabis stores could be subject to increased monitoring following Committee recommendations

September 18, 2026 · 0 Comments

Local cannabis retail stores could be subject to increased monitoring after lawmakers received a series of recommendations made by a citizen-led task force.

Council last week tentatively approved several recommendations made by members of the Town’s Cannabis Retail Review Task Force.

The Task Force’s recommendations include improved public information and reporting identifying where residents and businesses can report their concerns on cannabis retail; establish a “targeted response” approach to these concerns, engaging the retailer, property owners, neighbouring businesses, York Regional Police, and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) where appropriate; and encourage cannabis retailers and property owners to “proactively address legitimate neighbourhood concerns, including litter, parking, property maintenance, and patron behaviour occurring on their properties.”

The Task Force also called on the Town to reaffirm the municipality’s position when it opted in on cannabis retail in 2019, calling for the authority enforce the location of cannabis retail with a minimum of 150-metres separating them from “sensitive uses” including daycares, nurseries, parks, group homes, addiction and counselling facilities, recreation facilities, and “other appropriate gathering spaces.”

This separation has not been enforced locally by licensing authorities, Council and Task Force members agree, and the Task Force called on Council to request the Ontario Government “amend the cannabis retail regulatory framework to provide municipalities with meaningful authority to address the location, density, and clustering of cannabis retail stores within their communities.”

In her report to Council, Town Solicitor Patricia De Sario said the Town does not have the authority to license private cannabis retail stores or prohibit them as a land use, but “private cannabis retail stores are required to comply with the Town’s zoning bylaw and the Official Plan in regard to zones and standards that apply to all retail stores.”

“As such, private cannabis retail stores may be located wherever retail uses are permitted and must comply with setbacks and other standards,” she said. “Further, the Building Code and Fire Code may apply if permits are required and where these codes do apply, the appropriate inspections would be required.”

While municipal authority might be limited, Council endorsed the Task Force’s recommendations at last week’s Committee of the Whole meeting, a decision expected to be ratified at the last scheduled meeting of this Council term on September 22.

“I want to…thank everyone on the Committee, both staff and public members for doing a great job in identifying and researching and understanding better the impact of cannabis retail stores in Aurora,” said Ward 5 Councillor John Gallo, who chaired the Task Force. “I think we captured the issues, I think we identified the concerns, and we put forward some action items to [get in front of] any potential issues, and strategies on how to deal with them.”

The recommendations were also supported by Ward 1 Councillor Ron Weese, who was an active participant on the Task Force as well.

“I’d like to thank the Legal Department for the work that they have done on helping pull all of this together, because it was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle at one point, but they did a fantastic job and I want to thank the people who are on the committee. We had people who are compliance officers with large cannabis organizations, we had residents, we had people from the YRP, we had people from our own Bylaw offices, both residents as well as commercial people. I think the job was done very well and I hope these recommendations are put into motion for us through this because I think it will make a difference.”

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter