Residents will have their say in the city’s plan for the legalization of cannabis, but that consultation isn’t cheap.
At the March 5 meeting, St. Albert city council voted to commit $50,000 for a resident survey and other public engagement measures regarding the legalization of cannabis. Of that $50,000, $35,000 is for public participation, which includes a survey, consultation with businesses and an invite-only group input session referred to as a “World Café.” There is an additional $10,000 for an education campaign and $5,000 included in case of cost overruns.
It was a 4-3 vote, with Mayor Cathy Heron, Coun. Sheena Hughes and Coun. Natalie Joly opposed, in part due to the wide-ranging and sometimes contradictory opinions Edmonton received in its survey.
Public engagement is laudable, but not if the feedback isn’t useful. The Edmonton survey showed a mixture of responses on most topics, only seeing uniform responses on a few questions. Most people agreed that cannabis stores shouldn’t be near schools, for example, but that’s common sense. We hardly need a survey to tell us that.
A recent council information request showed administration conducted 56 surveys in 2017, at a cost of $28,578; though $27,000 alone was spent on the Community Satisfaction Survey. When you compare what the city spent on all of their surveys last year, does the cost of this public consultation make any sense?
At least four bylaws – the land use bylaw, business licensing bylaw, smoking bylaw and tobacco licensing bylaw – will need to be updated, but these will come with their own public hearing process. That should allow ample public discussion without having to spend extra money.
When dealing with a complex issue like cannabis legalization, getting feedback in a general survey isn’t very helpful. Why is council trying to reinvent the wheel? There are examples of the effects of pot legalization in the United States that council and administration should be referring to in order to guide the strategy. Spending more money on consultation doesn't mean we're getting better policy.
What happens in other jurisdictions, particularly the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, will also influence St. Albert's direction. Most likely council will end up doing something similar as our neighbours. That means those tax dollars spent on consultation are going up in smoke.
We elect these men and women on council to make decisions on our behalf. The mayor and councillors just gave themselves a raise. It’s time they earned the extra pay.
