Industry players call for regulatory tweaks as empty shelves harsh retailers’ buzz
Some industry experts say the Canadian government’s legal pot regime can be tweaked to help address immediate supply concerns, but the federal minister in charge of overseeing the regulatory system said a national cannabis supply shortage isn’t to blame for unstocked retail shelves in parts of Canada. In an email interview with The Hill Times, […]
Black market, supply chain issues will improve as legal weed market matures, says Blair
The federal minister responsible for the legal cannabis system in Canada says the black market will continue to shrink in 2019 as the legal cannabis market matures. In an email Q&A interview with The Hill Times, Minister for Border Security and Organized Crime Prevention Bill Blair (Scarborough Southwest, Ont.) said the illegal market won’t be […]
Blunt talk: Liberals dropped the ball on legalization
It’s been nearly three months since the legalization of cannabis, and there is much to be concerned about. Many of these concerns were highlighted to the government before legalization, on Oct. 17, 2018, while some are new. While legalization through Bill C-45 was still under consideration in the House of Commons and the Senate, concerns […]
Legalization lessons from the municipal front lines
Legalizing non-medical cannabis has been a significant challenge for every order of government. Municipalities’ practical experience with legalization also underscores the need to modernize how governments work together to benefit the Canadians we all serve. This is a big national commitment. And such commitments often require extensive local implementation. When Ottawa commits to generate growth […]
Protecting the health and safety of Canadians remains our top priority
On Oct. 17, 2018, after extensive consultations with Canadians, study and input from Parliamentarians, and close collaboration with other levels of government, Indigenous organizations, experts and stakeholders, the government of Canada brought the Cannabis Act into force. The legislation delivers on our promise to establish a strict legal framework for the production, distribution, sale and […]
Legalizing pot will not weed out organized crime
On Oct. 17, 2018, the Canadian government legalized the possession and use of recreational marijuana for persons over the age of 18. The government’s stated rationale was, in part, “to keep profits from going into the pockets of criminal organizations and street gangs.” One analog is Canada’s cigarette industry, which continues to fight an uphill […]
Permanent residents should pay the same price as Canadians who drive impaired
It has been more than a month since the Cannabis Act and its companion legislation, Bill C-46, Impaired Driving Act, have come into force. While the Cannabis Act itself was widely discussed in public, there was comparatively little debate about Bill C-46, which may have disastrous consequences for permanent residents in Canada. As per the […]
Cannabis
It’s ‘vital’ feds name Conservatives to security committee soon, or it’ll ‘become problematic’: critics, experts
It’s “vital for the legitimacy” of Parliament’s National Security and Intelligence Committee that the government name Conservative MPs to sit on the body soon or the two Tory vacant seats will become “problematic,” say critics and intelligence analysts. The 11-person National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) is down two members after Conservative MP […]
RCMP forensic lab ‘drowning in work’ as it misses all response targets, internal figures show
The RCMP’s forensic lab is behind on all of its performance targets, failing to complete half of all DNA requests and more than a third of toxicology tests within the target time even as it predicts a huge increase in samples the lab will need to process after changes to the impaired driving law. In […]
