Have Your Say

Enter your municipality’s name below to send this message to the elected leaders in your municipality. It encourages them to opt out of risky private cannabis stores and urge the provincial government to make responsible publicly-run cannabis stores available in your community.

 

Please note: Names and contact information are available for most but not all municipalities. We apologize if we have not been able to find details for your municipality. You may be able to find more information by doing an online search for “(Your municipality) elected representatives.” We are updating this list as the contact information becomes available to us. Thank you.

About You

  • I agree that by clicking on the "SEND THIS MESSAGE" button below, I support the position outlined in the text and authorize responsibleplan.ca to send this message on my behalf to my municipal representatives and the Responsible Plan team.

  • Hello, my name is [your name will appear here] and I live at [your address will appear here].

    I am writing to urge you to ensure our municipality “opts-out” of hosting private cannabis retail outlets, and pressures the provincial government to provide a public option for the retail sale of cannabis in our communities.

    The legalization of cannabis is the most significant public policy change that Canada has faced for generations. The people of our community are anxious about the consequences, particularly the likelihood of underage kids and teens getting their hands on cannabis. Recent public opinion research by Nanos shows that Ontarians are 11 times more likely to say the LCBO would be better than private retailers at keeping cannabis out of the hands of kids.

    Unfortunately, the provincial government’s plan for cannabis retail does not currently give our community the ability to choose the LCBO as a cannabis retailer. In fact, the “choice” they have given us is really no choice at all. It’s an unfair Catch-22. In an unrealistically short time-frame, we must either:

    • “Opt out” of hosting retail cannabis outlets, allowing an illicit market to continue to thrive at the expense of community safety and revenue.

    • “Opt in” to hosting an unlimited number of profit-driven cannabis outlets, forever giving up control over how many outlets we must host or where those outlets can be located.
    In either scenario, we are stripped of all community control but left with most of the enforcement costs.

    We don’t even have the ability to stop private stores from setting up within a stone’s throw of our schools. During the election campaign, Doug Ford promised to keep them at least 450 metres from schools. But now it turns out the Ford government will allow them within just 150 metres. This is not right. This is not fair. Our community deserves a real choice. A responsible choice. A public choice like the LCBO.

    The LCBO has a long, proven track record of responsibly selling a controlled substance. Existing LCBO locations could be easily retrofitted for the sale of cannabis. Our citizens will know where cannabis is sold, and they will take comfort knowing that it is being sold responsibly and effectively.

    We can always opt-in later, once we have more information, more community control, and a trusted option, But for now, it’s time for our community to demand a real choice.

    We need to opt out of this irresponsible plan that Doug Ford is trying to impose on us, and we need to push for a responsible plan, so we can feel confident that cannabis is being sold here as responsibly as possible.

    Sincerely,

    [your name will appear here]
    [your address will appear here]

    CC: Responsible Plan (info@responsibleplan.ca)

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