Legalizing cannabis means tax revenue from sales, but Alberta municipalities are concerned the government’s funding model won’t bring dollars back to the towns and cities implementing bylaws. The Municipal Cannabis Transition Program (MCTP) was announced Oct. 15 by the provincial government as its way of sharing tax revenue with municipalities in Alberta. Tax revenue is being generated from a federal excise tax and shared with provinces, which can then share the funding with municipalities. In Alberta, it equates to $2.70 per capita, or $11.2 million, whereas in Ontario the amount is $2.90 per capita and in Quebec municipalities will see $7.50 per capita. If Alberta communities were to receive the same amount per capita as Ontario, it would mean an additional $3 million to split among the 52 eligible communities. Susan Laurin, Okotoks director of community services, said eligible municipalities are only those with a population of 5,000 people or higher. “The funding is targeted at municipalities that are responsible for their own policing costs,” said Laurin. Though more program details won’t be available until closer to January, she said the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association is taking action now to fight for a more equitable dispersal of the MCTP dollars. At this time, Okotoks would receive up to $63,919 in 2018-2019 and $44,184 in the 2019-2020 year. The MCTP is only a two-year program, so funding is uncertain beyond 2020, she said. Coun. Tanya Thorn, who sits on the board of directors for AUMA, said the organization is urging municipalities across Alberta to write letters to their MLAs, as well as provincial ministers and Premier Rachel Notley’s office to fight for a better funding model. She said the federal government increased the amount of revenue it provides to provinces because of lobbying done by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, but in Alberta that won’t result in more money for communities. “What the Province has done here is they’re not passing that money across,” said Thorn. “They’re getting all this money from the feds and they’re only giving 11 per cent back to municipalities, and they’re only giving it to select municipalities.” The rationale of sharing revenue only with municipalities that pay for their own policing doesn’t make sense, she said. Smaller communities still have expenses related to the legalization of cannabis because there’s more to it than policing, she said. In most cases, she said the RCMP won’t be involved in a lot of the enforcement issues – it will be municipal enforcement responding to community complaints. Municipalities have also borne the cost of implementing bylaws and preparing their citizens, she said. “Every municipality has had to do new bylaws, so that takes staff time to research, to rewrite and redo,” said Thorn. “Most of them have done public consultation or a public survey of some form. And then there’s the education and all those other things on top of it. “There’s the potential social impact side of things that could affect the municipality as well.” Although Okotoks is eligible for funding, she said the Town will still have to apply to receive it, because it has been set up as a grant. In addition, there will need to be reports filed explaining how the money was used, she said. Even applying for the grants and filing reports costs the Town more money in staff time and resources, she said. While 52 eligible Alberta communities will split $11.2 million over two years, she said the provincial government will see even more revenue from its online sales over and above what it receives from the federal government. “The government doesn’t have to share anything for online sales,” said Thorn. “It’s only retail stores, tax from retail stores that’s being shared. So the online stores, all the taxes on that just goes to the Province completely.” However, municipalities will still be dealing with any potential issues from those sales, she said.
