A new medicinal marijuana processing proposal went before the City of North Battleford Monday, and this time it looks like it could definitely be a go.
A discretionary use application was approved unanimously at council for a medicinal marijuana facility at 10011 Thatcher Ave., in the Parsons Industrial Park area.
The site is currently home to Envirosafe Chemicals Canada. According to correspondence from company president Jim Davey which was circulated at council, Envirosafe Chemicals are seeking to expand the current building by 52,000 square feet and transform their existing building into a “fully operational cannabis production facility.”
They are also in the process of applying to Health Canada for a commercial production license and anticipate hiring up to 36 people during this process.
At the council meeting, Mayor Ryan Bater emphasized this latest medicinal marijuana proposal was not the same one that was before council earlier this year.
The earlier discretionary use application was for the former Maple Leaf Foods plant at 99 Canola Ave. It has since been reported a fish processing plant plans to set up in that location.
At the time of the earlier application in March, council approved changes to the zoning bylaw to include new wording to allow medicinal marijuana as a discretionary use in the Parsons Industrial Park area. That area is zoned M2-Heavy Industrial District.
Because of those earlier changes, the Envirosafe Chemicals discretionary use application was fairly straightforward and dealt with in one council meeting.
No objections were received by City Hall on this latest proposal. According to an Aug. 15 memo from city planner Devin MacAulay, land owners within a 75-meter radius were notified and it was also posted on the City of North Battleford’s website and bulletin board.
Now that council has approved the application, the next step for Envirosafe Chemicals is to proceed with their Health Canada application. They will also require a building and development permit from the city to expand the building.
In speaking to reporters following Monday’s meeting, Mayor Bater welcomed the prospect of new business coming to the area.
“I’m always interested to see new enterprise in the city,” said Bater. “It’s good to see that happening in North Battleford.”
But as the mayor has pointed out before, marijuana will be an issue that will surely come before council again in the future, as they respond to the federal government’s relaxing of the laws pertaining to marijuana in the country.
Bater acknowledged that the federal moves towards legalization of marijuana will have an impact on the city and on its bylaws.
“That brings a number of issues to municipalities. Zoning is one of them,” said Bater.
“I feel we’ve kind of addressed that with the medicinal marijuana zoning that we undertook last winter. But after next July we’ll have to consider amending that bylaw to get rid of the word ‘medicinal’ if we want to allow just the production of recreational or other marijuana in the city.”
Other impacts he sees coming down the road include issues of community safety surrounding marijuana, as well as amending the zoning bylaw to allow or not allow retail outlets to sell marijuana for recreational use in certain parts of the city.
“I don’t think we’re interested in having those kinds of facilities next to elementary schools, for example. So we want to make sure if that’s going to happen, it’s going to happen in the appropriate places.”
