Oakville again rejects cannabis stores

Oakville won’t be home to any pot shops in the near future.

Once again the needed spark wasn’t there on Oakville Town Council to opt-in to the province’s cannabis retail store program.

A motion by Ward 1 Regional and Town Councillor Sean O’Meara at Monday night’s meeting to opt-in received no support.

While disappointed, O’Meara says he doesn’t think the decision not to opt-in “makes or breaks us either way.”

“I don’t think the will is there to overturn this, so I won’t rock the boat at this point,” he said. “But I do believe we should be just moving forward and turning the page on this and letting it operate like any other business we have, but I digress on that.

“I just thought it was important I express my views.”

The federal government passed the Cannabis Act on Oct 17, 2018, legalizing recreational cannabis before the Ontario government launched its private retail model on April 1, 2019.

The Province gave municipalities a one-time opportunity in Jan 2019 to opt-in or opt-out of having retail stores in their community. Municipalities who opted-out can opt back in at any time, but they may not reverse their decision.

“It’s like the Hotel California,” Oakville Mayor Rob Burton quipped. “You can check in any time you want, but you can never leave.”

Only 66 municipalities in the province voted to opt-out.