News

Halt BC Cannabis Stores expansion, says petition

Published on October 26, 2020 by oz. staff

Hundreds of people have signed a petition calling on the BC government to halt their expansion of provincially run brick-and-mortar BC Cannabis Stores.

The Association of Canadian Cannabis Retailers (ACCRES) started the petition, which is circulating on social media.

“The Province of BC is opening over 200 taxpayer-funded Gov’t BC Cannabis Stores in the next couple of years, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars,” says the petition.

“The expansion of the publicly owned network of cannabis stores is unnecessary and wasteful.”

ACCRES argues in the petition that private enterprise has the capacity to provide access to regulated cannabis.

ACCRES says the investment in publicly owned infrastructure is an unnecessary expenditure of public funds—especially during a pandemic—when BC is already running a massive deficit.

“If you would like to see better use of your tax dollars and would like to support small businesses in your community, please sign and share this petition,” says the group.

By Monday afternoon, more than 250 people had signed.