Pubdate: Tue, 20 Jun 2017
Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2017 The Calgary Sun
Contact: http://www.calgarysun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.calgarysun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67
Author: James Wood
Page: 7

TIME TO TALK POT TAXES

Ready for legalization, except for one thing:

Alberta will be ready for legalized cannabis in 2018 but has work to
do in developing a tax regime, Finance Minister Joe Ceci said Monday.

Ceci attended a meeting of federal and provincial finance ministers in
Ottawa where legal weed was on the agenda.

The federal Liberal government has set a date of July 1, 2018 to keep
its campaign promise to legalize recreational marijuana and provinces
are currently working to develop a regulatory regime.

One issue Alberta must grapple with is the lack of a provincial sales
tax, acknowledged Ceci as he spoke to reporters in a televised news
conference.

"Without a provincial sales tax, we need to ensure that we receive
adequate monies to address the costs of having cannabis available for
distribution and sale in our province, whether that's on the health
side or the enforcement side or the education side," he said.

"So we're going to look at how to make it happen."

As well, some sort of provincial tax is needed on legalized cannabis
to ensure it is is not significantly cheaper in Alberta than in other
jurisdictions, said Ceci.

Some provinces, notably Manitoba, have asked Ottawa to push back the
deadline for marijuana legalization to allow provinces more time to
develop their regime.

Ceci said that Alberta is not looking for an extension.

"We are following through with what we need to do to be prepared for
that date," he said. "We're going to be ready." Alberta's NDP
government recently launched consultations around legalized cannabis,
looking at issues such as the legal age for consumption and where the
product should be sold. But the province's online survey touches only
briefly on the issue of taxation, noting that the province does not
expect a major amount of revenue from the sale of pot.

Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau said discussions Monday were at
a high level and did not address potential revenue from legalized
cannabis, nor revenue-sharing between Ottawa and provinces.

He said Ottawa is focused on ensuring coordination among different
governments across Canada and keeping the rate of taxation of legal
marijuana at a level low enough to end the current black market.

Both Morneau and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected the idea of
extending the timeline for legalization.

"We gave everybody lots of time," Trudeau said in Ottawa. "We've been
working for a long time with all the provinces, with the
municipalities... It's time for us to move forward on this."

Morneau acknowledged after the meeting that several of the provinces
said there's still much work to be done.

Provincial ministers have said they intend to push the feds to ensure
they receive a share of pot-related tax revenue that fairly reflects
the added costs provinces will have to assume on the road to
legalization.
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