To the Editor,
Various levels of government are continuing to push agendas for more more more cannabis cultivation. The City of Port Alberni is going ahead with its plans for licensing cannabis production facilities.
No thought that our industrial zoned areas are based on the plans of a mill town and are not adequately separate from the community and residential areas.
It is more than mindboggling that the planners seem to have zero consideration for the lay of the land and for the climate that we experience in the Alberni Valley. This will not bode well for those with respiratory afflictions, etc.
But why should we expect those at the municipal government level to think beyond what they are told? The real problem is coming out of the federal government ie. Health Canada.
The city planner has wrapped up the main concern of local residents regarding effective management and regulations with the term, “strict federal standards”. These are standards which do not exist.
The federal government concerns itself with two things only. One is the quality of the product.
The second is the security of the facility. Nothing else regulates waste management, odour or air quality. It seems like the environment is getting the short shrift.
The city has gone ahead with one, two and now three readings during a period of societal stress. That of COVID-19 and with the expectation that communications via a Zoom platform are “good enough.”
Should not more of us be speaking out against these developments, if we really care about our community and the results of the lack effective management which will be our neighbour when these facilities are constructed and functioning?
Is the city listening and do we care?
Rebecca Terepocki,
Port Alberni