Niverville residents take sides in cannabis store plebiscite

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This article was published 20/11/2019 (2495 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Niverville residents will soon vote to determine whether the town’s motto, “Where You Belong,” applies to a cannabis store.

Some Manitoba municipalities opted out of legal cannabis stores shortly after legalization in 2018, however, Niverville wasn’t one of them. Canna Cabana won the opportunity to open an outlet in the town some 30 kilometres south of Winnipeg in May, following a provincial government draw for store licences in seven rural communities.

But at a July 23 meeting, Niverville town council voted 3-2 to deny Canna Cabana’s conditional use application. Minutes show the hearing drew vocal opposition to the store, with attendees raising questions about whether it might harm the community. 

Mayor Myron Dyck cast the deciding “no” vote, and council later decided to put the question directly to residents in a plebiscite.

Dyck was unavailable for an interview, but Coun. Nathan Dueck said the Nov. 26 vote will be binding and can only be reversed by another plebiscite. Advance voting numbers suggest a strong turnout next week, he said.

Canna Cabana was surprised when Niverville council voted to block the store, said Nick Kuzyk, chief strategy officer with the retailer’s Calgary-based parent company, High Tide Inc.

High Tide still plans to go ahead with the Canna Cabana location, if the plebiscite permits it. Kuzyk said it could be open about two months after approval.

“We fully respect Niverville’s values and the cultural fabric of the town, and we’re not going to do anything that doesn’t fit with the cultural fabric of Niverville,” said Kuzyk.

Meanwhile, the “yes” and “no” sides are rallying.

Citizens Who Support a Progressive Niverville campaign spokesperson Billie Fontaine said she and other cannabis store proponents didn’t pay much attention to the July public hearing and were thus outnumbered by opponents.

“Everybody was kind of under the impression that this was a conditional use meeting, meaning that Canna Cabana was already approved and they were just going over the conditions,” said Fontaine, arguing it is a legal business and has a right to be open. 

A cancer survivor who uses cannabis for medical purposes, Fontaine also believes a local recreational cannabis store could improve access for people who might want to try it for therapeutic reasons, but don’t want to “go through the hoopla of getting a prescription.”

Cannabis store opponent Ewald Kasdorf lives outside Niverville and isn’t eligible to vote in the plebiscite, but it hasn’t stopped him from spending about $2,000 on highway and lawn signs urging a “no” vote. (Fontaine and like-minded supporters have in turn put up their own “yes” signs.)

Kasdorf said he’s fighting in order to protect the next generation in the community he considers his hometown.

“We believe it does not promote a healthy community,” he said. “Out in the country, it’s a very common saying: ‘It takes a village to raise a child’… And cannabis and other drugs have created more division in families, crisis in marriages, and just struggles in family relationships than any other product that I’m aware of.”

He also rejects the argument a legal cannabis store could help displace the illicit market, a key goal of the provincial government’s policy. “It does not undercut the black market, it just comes right alongside it.”

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Economic Development and Training said the Manitoba government “honours municipalities’ wishes to prohibit retail cannabis stores.”

“If a plebiscite to prohibit the local sale of cannabis is approved by voters, the Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Authority will not issue a retail cannabis store licence in the municipality.”

Census data from 2016 puts Niverville’s population at more than 4,000, but Dueck believes it now has more than 5,000 residents and is growing quickly. Dueck, who voted in favour of allowing Canna Cabana to open its doors, said there’s more at stake for Niverville than just a cannabis store.

“The individual store — and no disrespect to the store or the brand — probably doesn’t mean much to the community. It’s the overall concept of creating Niverville as an economic, viable hub for southern Manitoba that is the bigger question.”

solomon.israel@freepress.mb.ca  

Twitter: @sol_israel