Don Goofy / CC

The discussion at a Planning, Development and Community Services meeting on Wednesday spanned from weeds in city parks to business licences for weed when recreational marijuana becomes legal in Canada.
Mayor Charlie Clark was surprised by the proposed $20-thousand first-time business licence fee and annual renewal fee of $10-thousand.
General manager of community services, Randy Grauer, explained that opening up this type of business is not the same as your average business.
It takes a lot of support services to deal with policing and by-law enforcement, and getting all of the rules in place.
He estimates in the past year, at least one full-time-equivalent senior staff member has been working on the preparation for marijuana legalization.
Councillor Darren Hill mentioned that the fee in Vancouver was $30-thousand, but the shock went away when it was realized how lucrative the businesses were.
He suggested property tax isn’t the way to cover this. The licence fee should cover the administrative costs.
In an effort to keep things moving forward, the recommendations were passed for the fees and for retailers to install air filtration systems to minimize exterior odour impacts.
Both will be discussed at City Council on June 25th.
Mayor Clark has also asked for a report on the costs to the city so far when it comes to marijuana legalization and the estimated cost in the future.