With legalized cannabis less than a month away, many communities in northern BC are scrambling on the best way to control how the substance will be sold.
In places like Prince George, city council opted for a one thousand dollar business license fee as a way to get more independent retailers to apply.
However, the thought process is much different in Vanderhoof.
If a storefront does come to the Nechako Valley, the province will be a big part of the process.
“At this point, we’re not looking at fees or an independent run store but rather we are asking the government to look at if we were to have a store, it would be a government-run store in our community,” said Gerry Thiessen, Mayor of Vanderhoof.
“We don’t want to put any undue concern on our education system, the health system or on our police so we want to make sure that were very, very careful on where we go in the future.”
As for his northern counterparts, Theissen has watched the way Prince George has methodically gone about the exact same process with a much different result.
He admits he doesn’t know the city councillors but recognizes they have gone about it very prudently.
“They’ve been very, very cautious and very careful as they’ve gone down this road and I think that they have looked at it with a lot of concern and very thoughtfully, they know the area much better than I do but also need to respect the concern they have in their community.”
It’s pretty safe to say this is unchartered waters for Vanderhoof, much like the rest of Canada, which is why Thiessen believes the more conservative approach is the most effective.
“We sense that this is being imposed on us and we’re needing to make decisions, we want to make sure that whatever we do protects our community as much as possible and we have been very careful to make sure that we don’t make any hasty decisions and that’s why at this point, we sense life will remain as it has been in the past,” added Thiessen.
“I think everything is going at a quick speed on this file.”
The legalization date in Canada is set for October 17th.