Mayors in Canada Want a Slice of Revenue From Legal Cannabis

The mayors from some of Canada’s biggest cities are looking for a puff-puff-pass on tax revenue that will be rolling in from adult-use pot sales in 2018.

Local governments are asking for the funds to be filtered down to cover costs associated with land use, licensing applications for businesses, and law enforcement, once marijuana is a legal commodity.

The Parliamentary Budget Office estimated that the combined tax revenue from adult-use cannabis collected by federal and provincial governments could climb as high as $959 million the first year marijuana is legal.

Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson is acting Chair of the Mayors Group, and in an interview with The Canadian Press, he said, “one conversation that we think is important to have, is support for local governments dealing with the costs of enforcement.”

Mayor Mike Savage of Halifax is looking for direction from the feds by this fall, regarding the specific guidelines that will be in place once legalization takes hold.

Savage said he’s looking for “clarity around the law so that we can be prepared to deal with dispensaries, many of whom think that as soon as this passes, [they] can just open anywhere they…