Mellow out on cannabis enforcement costs in 2019 budget, Edmonton councillor says

The city could spend less money enforcing cannabis-related bylaws than police are calling for, says Coun. Ben Henderson.

Henderson said relaxing enforcement could save the city $5 million a year.

"It was a little bit likeY2K," he said. "Everybody imagined the crisis coming when cannabis got legalized, I don't think that's happened."

In a budget presentation to council last week, citypolice asked for24 new officers to deal exclusively with cannabis-related cases, like enforcing impaired-driving bylaws. The new hires alone would cost more than $3 million.

"I've never been convinced that cannabis usage is going to go up, particularly;that all the kind of problems that we've had with people driving stoned and things like that have always existed."

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Henderson said some costs related to zoning and smoking rules are a reality but he doesn't want the city to overdo it.

Mayor DonIvesonblames the Alberta government for leaving cities pay for enforcement cannabis-relatedlaws.

The provincecommitted $11.2 million for all municipalities with populations ofmore than5,000 people, whichtranslates to $1.1 million a year for Edmonton, an amountIvesonsaid isa tenth of what the citywanted.

"We're in a real tough spot over cannabis," Ivesonsaid. "Whether our actual costs is $8 or $10 or $12 or $16 millionfor cannabis, the $1.1 million isn't enough."

The federal government is letting the province keep 75 per cent of the taxfrom cannabisand most councillors have expressed frustration that the province isn't coming forward with a revenue-sharing deal with cities and towns.

Iveson said he's going to ask Ottawa to mandate the provincecreate a revenue-sharing deal.

Finance Minister Joe Ceci stuck to his offer in October and said he's not about to increase it.

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Iveson said there's still uncertainty around the impactof cannabis, but he is determined not to let the costs betransferred totaxpayers.

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