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Cannabis shops to drop foggy windows

St. Albert city council passed an amendment to the city's Business License Bylaw on Feb. 21 that allows local cannabis shop to have clear store windows, bringing the city in-line with provincial regulations.
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Matt Kujala, the manager of Rocky Mountain Roots Cannabis in St. Albert says council's decision to remove the requirement for cannabis retailers to have obscured windows will increase workplace safety. JACK FARRELL/St. Albert Gazette

Local cannabis stores are happy to see the fog lift on their window coverings and say the transparency will increase safety for shop workers.

On Feb. 21, St. Albert city council voted to allow local cannabis shops to have clear store windows, bringing the city in-line with a provincial regulation change made last August.

The change last August by the Alberta Liquor and Gaming Commission (AGLC), which is also the provincial regulatory body for cannabis, to no longer require cannabis shops to have obscured store windows came after a sharp increase in thefts and robberies were reported in Alberta stores through the first half of 2022. 

Although the AGLC dropped the requirement last year St. Albert's business license bylaw still required local cannabis stores to have obscured windows, until now. 

Matt Kujala, the manager of Rocky Mountain Roots on St. Albert Trail, told The Gazette the change is more than welcomed.

"Removing the window film is totally the right call here," he said.

"Having the window film basically prevented anyone like kids from seeing inside, and the [city] didn't really know what the potential problems were going to be like, but now that stores have been rolled out for a long time it's pretty obvious that there's nothing funky going on inside the stores."

Kujala said his store hasn't experienced a robbery or theft as a result of the obscured windows to date, but he said he's heard from other store managers in Alberta that have had issues.

"The clouded windows basically allow criminal elements to come into stores, essentially lock the door behind them, and then hold everyone in the store hostage," Kujala said. 

"People walking by on the streets [would] have no clue that [it's] happening, they'd just assume that the store closed early for the day," he said. "If the window film wasn't there, the people on the street would be able to see 'oh, there's a guy in there holding the place up'."

Monty Killoh, a business licensing inspector for the city, wrote in a report for council that city administration contacted 16 local cannabis retailers following AGLC's change last year to gauge the need to change St. Albert's requirement. 

"All retailers highlighted security issues this regulation posed, and most retailers noted that differing municipal and provincial regulations creates a difficult operational environment," Killoh wrote. 

"No retailers supported the idea of keeping or modifying the section related to obscured windows."

Killoh's backgrounder said  city administration also consulted the RCMP about the bylaw change, and Mounties were also supportive of removing the window coverings in order to improve workplace safety.

Bill Marsh, a cannabis educator at the Plantlife Cannabis store in Jensen Lakes, said his store actually removed the window covering right after AGLC announced the rule change. 

"It's a much safer work environment," Marsh said. "Having the windows clear compared to what it was like before, somebody could have come in here and robbed the store and nobody would have known what was even going on."

Like Rocky Mountain Roots, Marsh said Plantlife didn't have any incidents or robberies as a result of the obscuring windows, but he did feel as though the window coverings stigmatized cannabis stores.

"In my mind it degraded the cannabis stores," Marsh said. "I think with the screens up there before people were really scared to open the door."

Since removing the window coverings last August, Marsh said he's noticed more people going in the store for the first time. 

"Having the screens down takes away the stigma."

The change passed as a bylaw amendment on consent during the Feb. 21 council meeting, meaning council didn't discuss the change. 

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