Photo: Contributed

The City of Penticton is taking their next steps in engaging the community for input on if and how to allow non-medical cannabis sales at retail shops in the city when federal regulations come in this summer making it legal.

During Tuesday's meeting, the recommended approach of using an engagement program to find out how Penticton citizens feel about non-medical cannabis sales was endorsed by council.

"Now that there is more information on how the federal and provincial governments are planning to move forward, we can start looking at what it means to our community," said Blake Laven, planning manager. 

"Most of the rules are set by the federal and provincial governments similar to how alcohol and smoking are regulated. Our focus will be on the local retail environment."

The engagement program will seek to answer the following questions:

• Do residents support retail sales of non-medical cannabis? And if yes,
• How many should be allowed and where can they locate?
• What hours of operation are acceptable?
• Should there be any special requirements for things like appearance or security?
• What should the process for licensing be?
• How should the first licenses be issued?
• Should there be any restrictions on public consumption in addition to the rules for smoking in public?

Information will be collected through Shape Your City, a city-wide survey and numerous open house events.

"This is a potentially controversial subject as well as new territory for all municipal governments so a higher level of community involvement is warranted," said JoAnne Kleb, engagement strategist.

The plan has four stages, starting with raising public awareness and inviting community feedback. Phase two will report the findings from the community, phase three will incorporate community feedback into a final draft of regulations and phase four will make revisions and provide regulations to council for for review.

They hope to have the process completed before fall 2018.