In their efforts to create an efficient post-legalization structure for recreational cannabis users and producers, the BC NDP government has just given a degree of autonomy to local and Indigenous governments in the province.
They will be given the authority to prohibit the production of cannabis in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) within their communities, unless it is grown in a way that preserves the productive capacity of agricultural land.
This means that local and Indigenous governments can stop producers from building cement-based growing bunkers on ALR land.
Caveats
However they cannot stop the production of cannabis on ALR land if it is grown legally under the following circumstances:
- in an open field,
- in a structure with a soil base,
- in a structure that was built or under construction with the proper permits obtained, before July 13th, 2018,
- in an existing licensed operation.
This framework will allow local and Indigenous governments to ban producers from changing existing structures to increase the size or material used as the base.
It will apply to licensed medicinal and non-medicinal facilities on ALR land. These changes only apply to land within the reserve, as local governments can already regulate production on lands outside of it.
 within their communities){kind=link}