The mayor of Salmon Arm says the process to licence cannabis retail stores has worked quite well for his community.
Alan Harrison says the approvals by the province have gone in a chronological order.
“I can’t speak for other communities,” Harrison said. “Perhaps with individual store owners, there’s probably some frustration there that the process has taken longer than they would have wished. But from a city’s point of view, I think its been pretty smooth.”
There are two private stores are currently open in Salmon Arm, while three others should soon follow suit.
Two of those private stores – Downtown Cannabis and Salmon Arm Cannabis – have recently been granted licenses by the LDB, and Harrison says he understands why there might be frustrations at the delays in Kamloops.
“Here we do not have a government store open. There is no concern about acceleration of a government store over say a private store,” he said.
Kamloops has three retail cannabis stores open, two of which are government stores.
Harrison says the fifth private store is called Eden, noting that Salmon Arm’s government cannabis store is still likely a year away, as it will be in a new building that is yet to be constructed.
The city has capped the number of stores downtown at four. In all, there have been six applications supported by city council.