{"id":22635,"date":"2019-01-10T12:40:02","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T17:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=22635"},"modified":"2019-01-17T11:54:45","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T16:54:45","slug":"questions-still-need-to-be-answered-on-retail-pot-say-councillors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/questions-still-need-to-be-answered-on-retail-pot-say-councillors\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions still need to be answered on retail pot, say Councillors"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aurora will host a Special Council meeting next Monday, January 21, to decide whether or not to allow retail cannabis sales within the Town.
\nAs The Auroran reported last week, the decision will come down to the wire as municipalities have until January 22 to opt in or opt out, but some Councillors say there are still many questions that need to be answered at the Special Council meeting for them to make an informed decision.
\n\u201cWhether one likes it or not, it is important that we recognize cannabis is now a legal product and Aurorans have access to legally purchase cannabis online via the OCS (Ontario Cannabis Store),\u201d says Councillor Rachel Gilliland. \u201cThe Town of Aurora has thankfully been given more time than others to do more research and observe other municipalities go through the same process of deciding whether or not to opt in or opt out of allowing cannabis retail and I, for one, am still researching and asking questions to help make the best decision for our Town.
\n\u201cFor me, the key factors are public health, enforcement and regulation and Council will be meeting with York Regional Police shortly to gather more information. I would like to know if there are potential risks around illegal sales if we opt out. Will our enforcement costs go up? Is it safer for the public to have a controlled retail environment? I also look forward to hearing more from the public to understand their concerns, issues and\/or support.\u201d
\nCouncillor Sandra Humfryes is also looking forward to getting more information from both York Regional Police in the days ahead, as well as from the public in the lead-up to \u2013 and at \u2013 the January 21 meeting.
\nOver the course of the 2018 Municipal Election campaign, Councillor Humfryes said the vast majority of the people she spoke at the door were in favour of opting out but, over the last few weeks, the tide has started to turn.
\n\u201cThe majority of people were asking to opt out, but that was back in October and November and there have been some developments,\u201d says Councillor Humfryes. \u201cThere is the argument that we have liquor stores and you can go and buy cigarettes and alcohol and I am seeing a different viewpoint in the last few weeks with people saying, \u2018If we can go to neighbouring municipalities or Toronto and still get it, why can\u2019t we get it here at home? It is legal, so why should we opt out?\u2019\u201d
\nThe \u201cproblem\u201d with cannabis, she says, is that people still have the idea that people use it simply to get high but, she says, people are increasingly using it for different reasons, whether it is \u201cfor pain, for ways of functioning or focusing.\u201d
\n\u201cIt is totally different and I feel people need it and we should support that use for them,\u201d she adds. \u201cI worry a little bit for the youth and they have to get the right view of what it is for.\u201d
\nIn the lead-up to the January 21 meeting, Councillor Humfryes says she is looking forward to receiving more input from the public, seeing the results of public surveys the Town has been conducting and getting a feel for the majority.
\n\u201cI will go that route, however there is still a part of me that doesn\u2019t think we\u2019re ready for it in our Town just yet,\u201d she concedes, \u201cbut I don\u2019t want to have some missed opportunities with tax benefits and opportunities for small businesses to take advantage of this.\u201d
\nWhat has been missing from the dialogue, she adds, is information from the upper levels of government on just how the retail environment will be \u201cmanaged\u201d while municipalities \u201care just reaping the benefits, or not.\u201d
\n\u201cThe public needs to have more information on how these retail stores will be regulated with health inspections and everything else,\u201d she says. \u201cIt will be a very regulated environment. There is a lot more to be done before January 21 and then we will be in a better position to see where Aurora wants to be. We need to hear more, listen more, hear what the residents have to say and make a final decision.\u201d
\nAlso on the fence is Councillor Wendy Gaertner.
\nAlthough she says she\u2019s received just a few emails on the subject, on top of one in-person conversation and one voice mail, the comments she\u2019s heard so far on retail cannabis have been mixed.
\n\u201cI have to do what the residents want,\u201d she says. \u201cI think there are more people who don\u2019t want it, but I\u2019ve had about seven emails, one voicemail and one [conversation] in person, so it has been very hard to judge [so far]. I think, and rightly so, that there have been a lot of emotional responses, but I am looking for facts and I am looking for information that will point me to something that is right for the community or wrong for the community. So far, I don\u2019t have, that and you have to do what the community wants.\u201d
\nThe Special Council Meeting on whether to opt in or opt out of retail cannabis sales will take place in Council Chambers on Monday, January 21, at 7 p.m. The meeting is open to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Councillors say there are still many questions that need to be answered at or before Special Council meeting January 21 on whether to opt in or out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5T5","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 23:23:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}