As City of North Vancouver council mulled the municipality’s first crop of legal cannabis stores Monday night, they also got an earful from marij-wannabes left in the dust of the green rush.
Last November, the city opened the online floodgates to pot shop proprietors vying for six potential openings. But the city’s first come, first serve approach led to the ambitions of a few entrepreneurs being dashed in a North Vancouver minute, according to Mary Zilba, a former Real Housewives star and current medical cannabis advocate.
A “time discrepancy” of approximately one minute resulted in her application being scuttled, Zilba told council. The city should redo the process, she said, suggesting a merit-based approach would be more productive than judging “who pushed the button fastest.”
File size, internet connection speeds and even firewalls may have impacted when applications were received, according to city planner Wendy Tse, adding that applications were processed based on when they were received, not when they were sent.
Despite supporting the policy previously, Coun. Holly Back expressed misgivings Monday.
“I know that I voted for the first come, first serve, but I guess I had something different in mind that we weren’t going to get everything within . . . one minute,” she said.
Successful applicant Brian Riedlinger, co-owner of Sailor Hagar’s Brew Pub, praised the process, outlining the steps he took to submit his application on time.
While he didn’t initially support the city’s “first past the policy,” Coun. Don Bell said he was satisfied the policy was followed. However, Bell said it was unfortunate “potential anomalies” may have created an uneven playing field.
The city heard another critique from Mark Elyas, a consultant representing unsuccessful candidate Quantum 1 Cannabis.
“Since only five applicants are going forward, I think a sixth applicant should be processed,” Elyas said in advocating for an additional pot shop on the city’s west side.
The city’s policy permits two shops in Central Lonsdale, another two in Lower Lonsdale, and one apiece in the city’s west and east reaches. However, the city received zero applications for the eastern zone around Park and Tilford.
The first five pot shop applications – including one provincial government store – are set to be processed in one batch to streamline the process.
Council retains the right to reject any one or all of the applications.
While the application process hasn’t been smooth for some entrepreneurs, Mayor Linda Buchanan told disappointed proprietors they may have another chance.
“This is the just the first step,” she said.
While she didn’t address the request to permit another pot shop on the city’s west side, Buchanan touted the benefits of zoning restrictions.
“To be honest, I don’t want six cannabis stores, or even more cannabis stores, along the Lonsdale corridor,” she said.
“I do take solace in the fact that we’re going to look at this again in two years,” Coun. Tony Valente said.
While there will be winners and losers and traffic problems, Valente noted the inherent challenges of the undertaking.
“It’s not every day we end prohibition,” he said.
