Thanks Hldctravel for forwarding this to me. Wh
Post# of 56323
What is happening here is an amendment to the official city plan (a legal and political document) that has been approved by citizens through consultation, council and is registered with the Provincial government.
In Canada municipal governments have no recognition under the constitution and are considered to be “merely creations of the province”.
The gist of the amendments are that the council
1) Believes in the industry and wishes to support it
2) Outlines criteria they will consider in making decisions (boiler plate that falls in line with MMPR regulations).
3) Will allow MMPR business in areas zoned agricultural and employment
4) Separate amendments allow for Hemp production (interesting as Bill C indicated shortly after deal for Hemp company that they had been meeting with agricultural community for hemp production in same region and growers were excited by prospects).
For me I view this as a political document and a legal. Firstly, political because it is an election year and these amendments once approved give political cover for any councillor that votes to approve MMPR facilities( no matter how popular or unpopular). Secondly, a legal document in that if council rejects and application it must do so on basis on the “official community plan” or opens itself up to litigation.
The biggest take away for me is they state in numerous ways that they wish to support the industry so they are essentially saying “hey we are open for business”. I see this as a very positive development.