Cannabis Information for Residents

In Ontario, you can purchase cannabis online through the Ontario Cannabis Store or through a private retail store.

According to the Cannabis Licence Act, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario licences and regulates private retail stores in Ontario.

In addition to the lack of municipal control, the following local issues and concerns related to private retail cannabis stores were noted by Town Council and the Town as needing to be addressed:

• Total number of storefronts – despite the current phased approach to issuing licences, there is no local control over the number of storefronts that could be licensed (and opened) in each municipality in the future.
• Private retail, instead of government operated – private retailers will be permitted to sell recreational cannabis, as opposed to having government-operated establishments as is done currently with alcohol through the LCBO.
• Lack of meaningful funding – the current proposed level of provincial funding is not a fair revenue split for municipalities to address cannabis legalization. There is also no funding currently dedicated beyond the next two years. The province – and the federal government – should do more to provide municipalities with meaningful sustained cannabis revenues.
• Location of storefronts – provincial regulations set no minimum distance between cannabis retail stores and some potentially sensitive locations, such as daycares and post-secondary institutions. It is also the responsibility of the Town to search for store applications, as the AGCO (Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario) will not provide direct notification. Municipalities only have 15 days to comment on proposed locations, and comments are limited to certain topics and are not binding.
• Hours of operation – private retail recreational cannabis stores will be permitted to open between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. under the new extended hours that were announced in December 2018 for the LCBO and the Beer Store. There is no local control over hours of operation.

No. The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) will post notice of each application to license a private cannabis retail stores in a searchable database. As a municipality, the Town of Whitby only has 15 days to submit comments to the AGCO.