Photo: Contributed
The first batch of retail cannabis applications will finally land on city council’s desk Monday.
The applications will be viewed by councillors nearly four months after the Nov. 30 application deadline.
Since that date, staff reviewed and scored the 36 rezoning applications accepted by the city. Fifteen of those were given the news early last month that they would be allowed to move ahead.
Planner Ryan Smith says the first group of five or six possible storefront locations will be brought forward during the first wave.
“There was a possibility it was going to be last Monday, but we were trying to consult with Liquor and Cannabis Control to make sure we got the recommendations right in the report, so it took an extra week to get it sorted out,” Smith said.
“We had to send them a resolution from our council. We wanted to make sure the resolution met their criteria. We didn’t want to send five or six rezoning reports then have to do them over again.”
Smith says the simplest of the 15 rezoning applications are going through the system first.
He says those with more complicated applications are taking a little longer to process and will go forward at later dates.
Applications approved by council will still be required to go through a public hearing before being granted a business license.
The first public hearing could come as soon as April 23.
Before any store can open, operators must also receive a provincial licence. That process has been extremely slow.
There are 458 applications before the province, 185 of those from prospective operators in the Interior and Northern B.C. Only 14 provincial licenses have been awarded.
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