CENTRE WELLINGTON – Centre Wellington staff are asking council the question of whether or not the township should allow retail cannabis stores, five years after council of the time decided against it.
Centre Wellington council will likely make a decision on this at Monday evening’s council meeting held at 6 p.m. A report on the agenda gives council the option to continue opting out or to opt-in, which would allow for cannabis stores in Elora, Fergus and Centre Wellington should applications be approved.
Council first opted-out in December 2018 but a revitalized interest from the community to revisit this decision came about in recent years, culminating in council deferring a decision and referred the matter to an advisory committee in late 2023.
The economic prosperity and growth advisory committee did not support opting in at this time.
Past surveys indicated a majority of participants supported cannabis stores in Centre Wellington. In 2018, 64 per cent were in support of 1,603 survey respondents and in 2023, 74 per cent of 913 participants were in support.
Municipalities that opt-in are not able to opt-out at a later time. A municipality acts as a commenting agency for retail cannabis applications but can not dictate the number of stores or their location.
Stores can not be within a 150 metre buffer zone around any school.
A past Centre Wellington report noted there are economic benefits to opting in which include additional jobs, increased investment in commercial properties and increased property tax assessment. The report said the average revenue at a cannabis store in Canada was about $133,000 in 2021.
Centre Wellington and Mapleton are the only Wellington County municipalities that have not opted-in to retail cannabis. The Town of Erin originally did not but later reversed this decision.
