A family healing centre born out of the ashes of a Vancouver Island residential school says it has obtained legal counsel in a bid to stop the construction of a marijuana production plant near Port Alberni
Premium Cannabis Meds plans to build a 57,000 sq. ft. indoor growing facility in a rural residential area of Beaver Creek, across the street from Kaackamin (pronounced kots-common) Family Development Centre.
In a press release, Kaackamin says it has legal advice detailing how and why the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District (ACRD) can stop the medical cannabis production plant on Beaver Creek Road from being built.
The ACRD has maintained the position that there is nothing they can do to stop the facility from going forward, as Premium Cannabis Meds applied for a building permit before new regulations came down from the provincial government. These new regulations include an outright moratorium on cement-based, industrial-style cannabis production facilities in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR).
Although the cannabis facility received approval from the Agricultural Land Commission in January, the facility is currently not licensed by Health Canada or the ACRD. The current bylaw in place for medical marijuana mandates that proposals must be approved by Health Canada in order to be approved by the ACRD.
The new bylaw, P1399, which was scheduled to be discussed at the Wednesday, Feb. 26 ACRD board meeting, has a grandfathering date of September 1, 2019. However, Kackaamin argues that the Ministry of Agriculture says that the grandfathering date should be the one in the provincial regulations: July 13, 2018.
Kackaamin says that the ACRD does not have to do anything “extra” or “unfair” to stop the project, “but should apply the same rules to everyone,” meaning no concrete-floored cannabis facilities will be allowed in the ACRD on ALR lands.
“There is no legal reason for the proposed Beaver Creek facility to be the one exception to the rules, especially when the social costs to Kackaamin and the neighborhood is so high,” the press release states.