Directors pass marijuana bylaw

The Regional District of Fraser-Fort George has approved what may be a temporary measure to control where new medical marijuana facilities can set up shop.

On Thursday afternoon, the board of directors voted in favour of a zoning bylaw that allows new Health Canada-licenced grow operations in parcels zoned as Rural or M5 Industrial, 259 hectares (640 acres) or larger.

In a public hearing preceding the vote, residents spoke out against the large parcel size, calling it "a little ridiculous."

"It's out of the price range of any individuals to get their hands on," said one presenter.

The bylaw, as approved, means those with enough land in those zones don't need to rezone or get any sort of board approval before starting a medical marijuana production facility. Anyone else interested would have to submit a rezoning application.

One of the ideas tossed around during the directors' discussion was to not allow the facilities in any regional district zone, triggering a rezoning application and subsequent public hearing in every instance.

But Coun. Dave Wilbur said there needs to be a signal already built-in that such facilities aren't allowed in certain areas, specifically residential neighbourhoods.

"Leaving it wide open doesn't sit well with me. As a board, we have a responsibility to outline where a no-go is," said Wilbur. "I see this as an opportunity to stop what has been a blight on some of our neighbourhoods, not just in the sense of the odor and smell, but the fire hazard and the property values."

Valemount mayor Andru McCracken ultimately voted in support of the bylaw, with the understanding that it would be a placeholder until further work could be completed.

But he spoke strongly in favour of having less restrictions on potential production facilities.

"We're going backwards," he told his board colleagues, saying they shouldn't be making policy decisions based on fear. "In my jurisdiction... I support the growing of this product. I think we've gone too far on this one."

Area A director Warren Wilson echoed McCracken's view, as did Area F director Kevin Dunphy.

"We have to start thinking about medical marijuana differently," Wilson said. "For us to be putting more regulations in front of them, to me is just making it more difficult for anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit."

"I'm hoping that our board will look at not putting a lot of barriers to make things difficult for operations to start in our communities," Dunphy said. "Because of preconceived ideas, we're trying to find obstacles to make it not happen."

But it's important not to confuse what are two separate issues, said Coun. Murry Krause.

There's the fact that the production of marijuana is a legitimate medical process, he said, but there's also the fact that the regional district has to be able to manage that process - one which he said has been mismanaged by Health Canada in the past.

"It's not about legitimizing the use of marijuana, but how we manage it," he said.

The board didn't have a lot of wiggle room left, said chair Art Kaehn.

"We either proceed with this stop gap and come back with another bylaw," he said. "We can keep it fairly tight now and you can loosen it later."

Making further significant changes would trigger another public hearing, and with the old personal-use production licences expiring at the end of the month, there isn't the time to dawdle.

"They are converting over to the new licences here... and there could be a little bit of a window here where things might be out of control and we might not be able to manage it, as director Krause has suggested, in an appropriate fashion," said Kaehn.