Ottawa's mayor thinks the city should have some authority over where private retail cannabis stores can and cannot do business, next spring, but says he's been told the province will make the decisions.
Jim Watson wants the city to be able to set rules on things like the concentration of cannabis stores and the areas of the city in which they can open.
"We need to have some ability to regulate the number of pot shops, the distance between places like schools," said Watson. "We don't want to have ten of them show up on one street."
Watson told reporters on Thursday that he had spoken with the Ontario's attorney general and finance minister, and that they indicated to him that the province would retain control over the locations of private cannabis stores.
"They may think long and hard about wanting to have that burden, when we're on the ground we have the necessary bylaw, police and health inspectors to do the job properly,"
While cannabis becomes legal on October 17, storefront cannabis dispensaries will remain illegal; Ontario's online cannabis store will be the only legal place to buy the drug until licensed private stores are allowed to open by next April.
