Bowman wants city to have cut of pot revenue pie

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/12/2017 (2918 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City hall wants its fair share of tax revenue from the legalization of marijuana.

Mayor Brian Bowman told reporters Monday that he supports the claim that Canadian municipalities should get at least one-third of the pot tax revenue to offset the additional costs that will be placed on police and other civic departments.

“Our communities is where cannabis will be sold and consumed and my priority is keeping Winnipeggers safe and well-served,” Bowman said.

Bowman said research prepared by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities shows 17 different civic departments will be impacted by marijuana legalization, including police and various other civic services, like land-use, bylaws, zoning, business licensing, municipal enforcement, legal costs, and public engagement.

Bowman said using the FCM research, he estimated the annual additional costs to city hall for the legalization of marijuana will exceed $5 million.

“I believe this (one-third split) is fair and reasonable. It will go a long way to making local costs sustainable,” Bowman said. “It makes sense to use the cannabis excise tax revenues to ensure these costs don’t become a barrier to keeping Winnipeggers safe.”

But Provincial Finance Minister Cameron Friesen said Bowman’s $5-million figure isn’t backed up with any hard data because it doesn’t exist yet.

“Listen, the mayor can stand a number, up to date — I can tell you in this room today, there wasn’t a single provincial or territorial finance minister who was able to say with any certainty what the costs will be, when legalization of cannabis hits us,” Friesen told reporters during an afternoon phone conference.

Friesen said he pushed to have Monday’s joint statement acknowledge the role of municipalities, but would not say whether he’ll fulfill Bowman’s request for a third of all sin taxes.

“In principle, we have a commitment to working with all municipalities,” Friesen said.

Bowman said there is a need for leaders from all three levels of government to sit down and discuss a cost-sharing formula, but added he would prefer if Ottawa provided the municipalities their share directly rather than have to negotiate with the Pallister government.

“Given municipalities‘ central role in the administration and enforcement, municipalities should be meaningful participants in these revenue sharing conversations,” Bowman said. “It’s certainly something that we’ve been arguing publicly that the anticipated additional costs for the city of Winnipeg do need to be addressed going forward and I do think the right approach will be for federal, provincial and municipal orders of government to work in partnership, recognizing that there are costs for the other levels of government as well.”

With files from Dylan Robertson

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca