At a City Council meeting earlier this week, the city of Duncan voted to lobby the federal government to allow the municipality to receive a cut of any tax revenue that comes from legal cannabis sales in the future.
At the Feb. 15 meeting, council voted to “request that a portion of any future federal or provincial tax collected through marijuana sales and distribution be shared with local governments, and that the concept of tax sharing with local governments be forwarded to the task force looking into the new system of marijuana sales and distribution, for consideration.”
Council hoped that now, while the federal government is still establishing its regulatory framework around recreational cannabis, is the best opportunity to request that city’s get a portion of any tax revenues.
“regulation and enforcement for medicinal marijuana retail dispensaries will likely fall to the local governments once the law changes, thus creating additional burdens on local government resources,” reads the motion from council, who hope to offset the additional costs.
Now that the motion has passed, staff will bring the resolution to the Apr. 9 meeting of the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities for consideration.