Neepawa Council talks cannabis
- Details
- Published on Monday, July 23, 2018
By Eoin Devereux
Neepawa Banner & Press
The conversation has begun once again about cannabis in Neepawa. On Tuesday, July 3, Town Council discussed some of the potential regulations, either new or revised, that may be required.
The reason for the return to this topic is connected to a request that has been made to locate a retail outlet within the community. Mayor Adrian de Groot and the other members of the council deliberated on the issue for just over 20 minutes before deciding to ask the administration to move forward with additional research on the topic.
In 2017, the federal government announced legislation to legalize recreational marijuana use by July 2018. Earlier this year, the date was pushed back to Oct. 17, to give municipalities more time to deal with potential regulation changes.
In late December, the Town of Neepawa voted yes to examining the retail sale of cannabis within the community, though it was not unanimous. Councillor Bill Stilwell voted against the resolution and Murray Parrott abstained. The item still had enough yes votes to move forward.
Other communities such as Brandon and Portage la Prairie have already approved retail sales, while others, such as the Rural Municipality of Gimli have voted no to allowing the retail sale of pot in their community.
Firehall update
The construction schedule for Neepawa’s new fire hall has fallen behind. In the manager of operations report, it was indicated that the project is currently 30 days behind schedule, due to a caused by frost issues. The lack of significant rainfall in the area over the past few weeks, however, has allowed for some time to be made up. The new timeline for completion is being pegged for late December or early January.
Subdivision request
FreezerCo Ltd. has asked the council to approve the subdivision of a portion of property it owns just east of the Budz ’n Bloom Daycare facility. If approved, the request would allow for the expansion of the daycare into the area currently occupied by the former Corkscrew Wine Supplies building. As part of that plan, the Corkscrew building would be torn down. Council approved the subdivision request.
