Legalization: not be left to the municipalities and taxing cannabis

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Patrick Bellerose

Wednesday, 13 December 2017 14:30

UPDATE
Wednesday, 13 December 2017 14:30

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The mayor Régis Labeaume can sleep in peace, Quebec refilera not have municipalities the responsibility of taxing the cannabis.

“It was never what we wish for. And, what we want is for you to remain competitive to do a straightforward fight with the illicit market”, said Wednesday the minister delegated to the public Health, Lucie Charlebois.

The day before, the mayor of Quebec, had spoken of his fear that the government Couillard forcing cities to tax themselves marijuana in order to finance the responsibilities which would flow from its legalisation in July of next year.

“The fear I have is that they say : “We are going to allow you to be taxed”. The answer is : I don taxerai not, said Régis Labeaume. In Quebec, forget it. It’s going to be a fight. If they do that, it will break loose. We will not accept that they allow us to tax.”

Revenue sharing

Just as the Union des municipalités du Québec and the Fédération québécoise des municipalités, the mayor Labeaume claiming 33% of total revenues derived from the sale of cannabis.

The minister Charlebois argues, however, that it is too early to determine the part of cities, while the proposed provincial legislation to regulate the legalization is not yet adopted.

“There will be discussions with the municipalities, she said. We are aware that there will be needs, but we will start out by doing things in the right order.”

“We’re going to start by seeing what are the real costs, then we will, based on that, adjust”, said Lucie Charlebois.

The minister believes that the municipalities will be set on the share of revenues from the beginning of the next year. “We are going to have exchanges, certainly in the beginning of January 2018 to see how we are going to distribute it all,” she said.

More details will follow.