May 2, 2018 | Mississauga, Ontario – At the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) Annual General Meeting this past weekend in Hamilton, Ontario, the Mississauga Board of Trade (MBOT) sponsored a resolution calling on the Government of Ontario to share the federal cannabis excise tax with municipalities.

The resolution read:

Issue

The Federal Government has proposed a Cannabis Excise Tax to be implemented once retail cannabis sales are legal in Canada.  They have agreed to share this revenue on a 75-25% basis with the Provinces.  Municipalities are also requesting a piece of this tax to offset local regulatory and enforcement costs.

Background

The Federal Government has released its table of excise tax charges that will be collected from the retail sale of cannabis once legalized in Canada.  Details can be found at https://www.fin.gc.ca/n17/data/17-114_1-eng.asp.

In a recent meeting of Federal and Provincial Ministers of Finance, it was announced that the Federal Government will share 75% of the excise tax revenue with the Provinces recognizing costs that they are likely to incur in the regulation of the retail sale of cannabis going forward.

Municipalities, through the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), have been calling on both the Federal and Provincial Governments to also share this revenue with municipalities given that they too will incur costs associated with the regulation and enforcement on this new legal cannabis regime.  AMO issued a news releases on this on November 30, 2017 – https://www.amo.on.ca/AMO-Content/News-Releases/2017/AMOCallsonOntarioGovernmenttoCoverMunicipalCannabi.

Given the fact that the relationship of municipalities is generally through the Province and not the Federal Government, and that 75% of the excise tax will be given to the Provinces, the municipalities should be entitled to a portion of the tax to support local costs for this system.

In the final vote, Chamber Members of the OCC voted to urge the Government of Ontario to share 50% of their portion of the federal excise tax with municipalities.

“We are very pleased with our colleagues who supported this resolution and noted the new costs municipalities will incur because of the legalization of cannabis in Canada.  MBOT was proud to champion this issue so municipalities like Mississauga and Peel recover costs and not have to raise local property taxes to deal with this issue,” said David Wojcik, President & CEO, MBOT.

Media Contact: 

David Wojcik

Tel: 9052733527 | E-mail: [email protected]