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Thursday, September 12, 2013
SERVING MISSION SINCE 1908
Fall fair
A scarecrow building contest for kids was part of the fun at the McConnell Creek annual Old Fashioned Fall Fair last Saturday. Other attractions featured crafts and games, homegrown foods, and an auction. BOB FRIESEN PHOTO
Hundreds of illegal grow ops predicted Mayor says municipalities will be dealing with fallout from changes to medical marijuana licensing Carol Aun MISSION RECORD
Mayor Ted Adlem believes there will be hundreds of illegal marijuana grow operations in Mission next year when the federal government phases out individual medical pot licences. “It’s our biggest issue,” said Adlem, as he prepares for the week-long Union of B.C. Municipalities convention from Sept. 16-20 where he will meet with his counterparts and provincial government representatives. Earlier this year, Ottawa announced plans to eliminate home licences, and instead have medical pot grown and distributed by
highly regulated, secure commercial operators. The plan is expected to be launched in April 2014. “As I see it, the federal government’s idea of transition is that all these nice people currently with licences are going to quit and transition into the new system where you’ll have it mailed to you,” said Adlem. “I don’t think that will happen.” Municipalities will be left with the responsibility to clean it up, Adlem predicted, noting the addresses of current licensed growers are confidential and only the feds have that information. “They won’t provide the information to municipal-
conference, will ask the proities or law enforcement,” vincial government to lobby noted Adlem, adding the on behalf of B.C. municipalonly way police find out ities for the federif there is a lial government to censed grow at a take responsibilproperty is when ity for the costs they discover it, associated with then research it. changing the proSo far, Ottawa gram. has not shown “Municipalities an interest in and the provinpolicing the procial government gram. didn’t create this,” According to TED ADLEM reasoned Adlem. numbers provided by the district earlier this year, Mission has between 700 to 800 licensed marijuana grow operations. Adlem, along with councillors Dave Hensman, Tony Luck and Nelson Tilbury, who are also attending the
“We shouldn’t have to pay for changing the system.” Adlem will be meeting with B.C.’s minister of justice and attorney general Suzanne Anton to discuss the issue.
Mission RCMP Insp. Richard Konarski agrees there will be a lot of uncertainty, and notes it’s a challenge every community in Canada will face. Other issues Adlem and Mission councillors will be addressing with provincial representatives are upgrading Florence Lake Service Road on the west side of Stave Lake, and turning N. Railway Avenue into the official provincial highway through Mission, while handing First Avenue back to the district. The province has already committed $5 million towards road improvements on the west side of Stave Lake, but Mission hasn’t re-
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ceived any funding yet. It needs to get on the budget radar soon, so the Tim Horton Children’s Foundation can open its camp at the former Boulder Bay youth correction camp in 2017, said Adlem. The gravel road is in good shape up to the Zajac Ranch, but the 12 kilometres of road north of that needs to be improved. Taking highway traffic off First Avenue is critical to Mission’s downtown revitalization plan as it would eliminate the bottleneck at First Avenue and Murray Street and save commuters time.
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