Fuchsia Dragon | [email protected]
Jasper could have two cannabis shops less than 100 metres away from each other.
Downtown currently has two cannabis shops, Spirit Leaf on Patricia Street and Fleur Cannabis Boutique on Connaught Drive.
According to Spirit Leaf, West Coast Cannabis has proposed a store just a few doors down from theirs.
And there are rumours of a fourth store opening in Jasper on Connaught Drive.
Spirit Leaf wrote to council this week to object to the West Coast Cannabis store proposed for 610F Patricia Street, metres away from their 102, 618 Patricia Street address.
Darren Bondar, president, CEO and director of Spirit Leaf, said: 鈥滷rom a business aspect, we think that we should have a balance of various retail opportunities by ensuring the clustering of cannabis stores is avoided.
鈥淲ith a distance of roughly 71 metres and without any separation rules this would result in a cluster of cannabis stores in the area.鈥�
Council discussed the letter at their Tuesday meeting.
Councillor Rico Damota said separation was a topic of discussion while cannabis bylaws were being put into place and the council decided to not have a regulation on any business.
鈥淚t is a level playing field for everyone,鈥� he said.
Councillor Paul Butler said every potential developer who applied for a licence knew what the regulations were and 鈥渋t wouldn鈥檛 be fair to at this point change our bylaws now鈥�.
