Chestermere City Council passed the first reading of the Personal Cultivation of Cannabis Bylaw at the Dec. 4 meeting.
The new bylaw proposes that residents wishing to grow cannabis in single-detached houses or accessory structures in Chestermere up to the Federally mandated four plants, will require a license to do so.
“It’s as simple as getting a business license,” said Chief Administrative Officer Bernie Morton during the council meeting.
“Come in, you pay your fee, you get your license,” said Morton.
If second and third readings are passed unamended, the cannabis cultivation license will have a fee of $35 and will have to be renewed annually.
Through the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP) people, such as home buyers, will be able to find out whether a property has applied for a cannabis cultivation license, however personal information of the applicant will remain private.
The potential for the growing of cannabis to have detrimental effects on a home is why accessory buildings are also included in the bylaw to allow residents to grow in greenhouses or other buildings on their property.
Morton said that from the city’s perspective, their preference is for residents to use the cannabis retail outlets rather than growing at home.
“Those are the most regulated of any of the options,” he said.
As part of the license, the city will be providing educational material for the safe growing of cannabis.
Enforcement of the bylaw will be done on a complaint basis.
In preparing the bylaw, the city hosted a survey online asking for resident’s feedback on whether a license should be needed.
The results, which had to few respondents to be considered and accurate gauge of the community as a whole, showed a majority of respondents where against regulation of the growing of cannabis.
Despite the results, council is pursuing the licensing bylaw as a way to regulate the federally mandated restrictions on personal growing of cannabis.
“I don’t know that it’s a real hot topic in the community,” said Chestermere’s Mayor Marshall Chalmers.
“Quite frankly everyone I’ve had the opportunity to chat with about it thinks it is a good idea,” he said.
There is no public hearing scheduled for the Personal Cultivation of Cannabis Bylaw, however Chalmers said that council is still interested in hearing residents thoughts and opinions on the proposed bylaw.
“Now that the first readings out there, the framework is there we do have the ability to modify…as we go through the readings,” he said.
“Anyone that’s interested in making comments to for sure send them to your council members, to myself,” said Chalmers.
