Winnipeg to look at tackling large medicinal cannabis growing operations
Winnipeg City Hall is tackling a growing problem in residential neighbourhoods, big medical cannabis productions.
The city’s property and development committee voted on a plan to restrict the larger scale operations to manufacturing zones.
Right now, Health Canada allows up to four medicinal growing registrations per address, meaning people can be designated to grow for others. This can result in hundreds of plants per home.
Neighbours to some of these locations have been complaining about the smell and brought their concerns to the committee Wednesday.
“Over time we began to notice pungent odour that just hung over our backyard,” said homeowner Laurie Monk.
“The smell would be coming in through the fresh air intake that way, I couldn’t use my over the stove vent,” said homeowner Carmen Nedohin.
This is also leaving many to wonder if the larger scale medical grow ops are linked to crime, not health.
“People are growing large numbers of plants for the purposes of distribution,” said Coun. Markus Chambers.
As a result of concerns from residents and in turn councillors, a city report is recommending designated medical growers be banned from residential areas, restricting them to manufacturing zones. They would also be subject to a business licensing regime and exhaust requirements.
“That would allow the city to conduct inspections for health and safety concerns and that would allow us to respond to residents’ complaints,” said Coun. Devi Sharma.
This would not impact individuals growing medical cannabis in their homes for themselves.
But medicinal cannabis advocate Steven Stairs worries kicking designated growers to manufacturing zones could block access to the drug for patients who can’t grow their own.
“You’re forcing an added expense to a limited income demographic of people,” said Stairs.
With the committee voting in favour of the recommendations, it is directing city staff to come forward with the zoning and licensing changes for consideration.
This still requires approval from City Council.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter banned from NBA
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter has been handed a lifetime ban from The National Basketball Association (NBA) following an investigation which found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors, the league says.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Attempt to have murder charge quashed against alleged serial killer dismissed by judge
A motion filed by the man accused of killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg to have one of those murder charges quashed has been dismissed by the judge – weeks before the start of his trial.
Government proposes new policy for federally regulated employees to disconnect from work
In their 2024 budget, the federal government wants to amend the Canada Labour Code, so employers in federally regulated sectors will eliminate work-related communication with employees outside of scheduled hours. If implemented, this would affect roughly 500,000 employees across the country.