{"id":38568,"date":"2026-07-23T14:43:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T18:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=38568"},"modified":"2026-07-30T14:29:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T18:29:03","slug":"residents-invited-to-weigh-in-on-impact-of-cannabis-retail-in-aurora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/residents-invited-to-weigh-in-on-impact-of-cannabis-retail-in-aurora\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents invited to weigh in on impact of cannabis retail in Aurora"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Town of Aurora is looking to smoke out residents\u2019 feedback when it comes to the impact of cannabis retail in the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A survey was launched by the Town last week inviting residents to share their perspective on cannabis retail stores in Aurora to help inform future discussions by Council and citizen members of Aurora\u2019s Cannabis Retail Task Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe survey is open to all Aurora residents and businesses and seeks input on community experiences, perceptions, and priorities related to cannabis retail stores in Aurora,\u201d said the Town in a statement. \u201cResidents and business owners are encouraged to complete the survey and share their perspectives, whether they have direct experience with cannabis retail stores or simply wish to provide their views.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey follows early meetings of the Town\u2019s Cannabis Retail Task Force which was established by Council to \u201creview and discuss matters related to cannabis retail stores\u201d in the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results of the survey could help the Committee make further recommendations to Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Committee is examining public safety, business clustering, land-use planning, community perception, economic impacts, bylaw enforcement, potential advocacy efforts, and best practices in comparable Ontario municipalities,\u201d says the Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey, which is online through the Town\u2019s Engage Aurora platform, was brought forward by Ward 1 Councillor Ron Weese and Ward 5 Councillor John Gallo, both of whom serve on the Cannabis Retail Task Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since its inception, the Cannabis Retail Task Force has identified issues surrounding cannabis retail and has engaged with stakeholders, including the York Regional Police, looking for solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Task Force has reviewed information from Town Staff, Bylaw Services, York Regional Police, previous Council reports, provincial regulations, and feedback from residents and business owners,\u201d said Councillor Gallo at the most recent Task Force meeting, which touched upon the development of the survey. \u201cWhile there may be differing opinions on cannabis retail stores themselves, I believe several themes have emerged that can help guide our work moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFirst, the data suggests that cannabis retail stores on a whole have not created significant Town-wide crime or enforcement issues. At the same time, we have heard from residents and businesses near certain locations who have experienced impacts that may or may not always be reflected with the formal complaints statistics. Those concerns are real and they deserve to be acknowledged. Second, many of the issues raised are not necessarily about cannabis retail operations themselves; rather, they relate to location, clustering, proximity to sensitive uses, and the compatibility of certain locations with the surrounding neighbourhoods and businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPerhaps most importantly, as we review Aurora\u2019s history on this issue, it became clear that many of these concerns are not new. In 2019, when Council made the decision to opt into cannabis retail stores, it also asked the Province and the AGCO to consider separation distances between stores and setbacks from sensitive uses such as parks, community centres, libraries, daycares, and addiction treatment facilities. Many of the concerns we continue to hear today are remarkably similar to those identified by Council several years ago. This leads to what I believe is one of the key conclusions of our work: the issue is not that municipalities failed to identify potential impacts, the issue is that municipalities were never given sufficient authority to implement many of the safeguards they\u2019ve requested.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The purpose of the survey is to evaluate the impacts and see where gaps exist, including where issues and complaints are addressed and logged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the committee meeting, citizen members suggested elements of criminality \u2013 such as customers smoking or otherwise consuming near the retail outlets before getting behind the wheels of their vehicles \u2013 were present and that the York Regional Police was \u201cturning a blind eye\u201d to the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t see a lot of criminality as a result of these places,\u201d York Regional Police Detective Sergeant Bill Newton told the Task Force. \u201cMy perspective is they’re not a problem within that community. I understand your concerns. We certainly don’t want anybody driving under the influence. We appreciate anybody calling in at any time if they see that\u2026. I know we’ve responded to multiple calls at some of these stores for people driving high or just finished smoking marijuana and getting in a car. All we can do is respond. We can always suggest complaint areas if it’s something that happens daily. Then we can certainly have our Community Services officers attend the area. But as far as cannabis being an overall big deal, it’s not a big problem with us. We have probably bigger problems at fast food establishments in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we have to be realistic,\u201d he continued. \u201cYou could say that about every licensed establishment\u2026 There’s people that have beers or drinks and get behind the wheel of a car. We can’t be everywhere at once. All we can do is respond when reports come in that somebody’s driving under the influence or suspected. We do. It’s not to say that it’s not a problem. Anybody driving impaired or intoxicated is a problem, but in the grand scheme of things, these cannabis operations, we don’t get a lot of reports of criminality coming from them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To take the survey and register your views, visit engageaurora.ca\/CannabisRetailSurvey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Town of Aurora is looking to smoke out residents\u2019 feedback when it comes to the impact of cannabis retail in the community. A survey was launched by the Town last week inviting residents to share their perspective on cannabis retail stores in Aurora to help inform future discussions by Council and citizen members of […]<\/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-38568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-a24","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-21 23:52:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38568","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=38568"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38569,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38568\/revisions\/38569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}