It’s the day of legalization across Canada, however, that doesn’t mean much for buying marijuana in Prince George.
Joe Postnikoff of Grasshopper Retail Inc., says they are one of only 62 applications approved for a provincial license, however, it will be at least six months before they can open up a shop in the city.
He says the wait boils down to a re-zoning issue.
“What’s happening in Prince George is that administration is saying we need a whole new rezoning, which takes about four months, even though we are already zoned commercially at the downtown location.”
According to him, the rezoning isn’t the last step in the process either.
“After that, we still have to get a signed permit, a building permit and a business license. The administration is refusing to do any of that until we have re-zoning licenses,” said Postnikoff.
“Right now we’re being put in a cue, that if someone wants to subdivide land or they have something on their property they want dealt with – we’re being put in a cue with every rezoning in Prince George. We are just in a holding pattern for no real reason,” he said.
“We’re trying to create a business, create jobs and get a ton of taxes back to the city and we think that should be expedited exponentially.”
The City of Prince George’s Planning and Development Manager was not available for comment at this time.