Nelson city council will charge a $2,500 annual licence fee to operate a recreational cannabis business.
The decision was adopted at council’s Oct. 22 meeting as an amendment to the city’s business licence bylaw.
The fee is intended to recover the costs of inspections and enforcement of municipal, federal and provincial laws related to cannabis.
To help council understand the bigger picture, management staff provided a list of a dozen recreational cannabis licence fees from across Western Canada, ranging from $376 in Calgary to $2,500 in Campbell River and Edmonton, to $10,000 in Chilliwack to $33,000 in Vancouver.
Recreational cannabis businesses will need a provincial licence and a municipal business licence.
Under new provincial regulations, prospective recreational cannabis retail businesses must first apply to the provincial government, which will screen applications to ensure that basic requirements are met. These include background and criminal record checks, a financial integrity check, and verification that the applicant holds a minimum 12-month lease for the proposed premises. The provincial application fee is $7,500.
After provincial approval, the province will refer the application to the municipality, asking if the application meets the city’s zoning or other requirements. The municipality will then recommend to the province whether or not to issue a provincial licence.
To make this decision, city staff will apply a scoring matrix, approved by council in June, to decide which applications to accept.
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