Merritt city councillors joined elected officials from nearly 40 communities to discuss issues such as cannabis legalization at the annual Southern Interior Local Government Association (SILGA) convention from April 25 to April 27 in Revelstoke.
Municipalities from B.C’s Southern Interior met at SILGA to network, learn and discuss issues that hit close to home in this piece of the province. The impending legalization of cannabis was a focus for Merritt city councillors, according to Mayor Neil Menard.
“There was a good discussion on cannabis revenue sharing, so that’s something we’re going to be talking about in the very near future because we have to have a plan in place,” he said.
Noting the importance of public input and participation, Menard said a special committee of the whole meeting will take place in the near future to plan what cannabis legalization will look like in Merritt.
“We have to come up with some rules and regulations on who, when and where,” he said.
The City of Merritt shared concerns regarding cannabis legalization with other municipalities in attendance, he added.
“They’re all concerned, especially the revenue sharing and making sure it doesn’t end up costing our citizens a whole bunch of money,” he said. “It’s something that has to be done whether we like it or we don’t. It’s there and we have to make sure that our community is looked after and the young people are protected and we don’t have stuff popping up all over the place.”
Focusing on issues ranging form road safety to recycling, the conference is designed to synthesize key issues experienced by communities in the Southern Interior. Through workshops, symposiums and presentations, municipal governments identify issues relevant to the region and lobby the provincial and federal governments.
Resolutions passed at SILGA go to the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) later in the year to be debated before being forwarded to the B.C. government for a response. Resolutions of federal scope go to the federal Federation of Canadian Municipalities convention.
Merritt Mayor Neil Menard and all councillors excluding Coun. Goetz attended the annual event this year. Despite not submitting any resolutions, Menard told the Herald the conference was a positive experience for council.
“There were standard [resolutions] and a lot of them had been put in before,” he said. “You look at some of the stuff we may have been concerned about and it’s usually [put forward by] one of the other districts.”
Above all, the opportunity to connect with leaders in other municipalities was a high point of the conference for Menard.
“The networking, for me anyways, is always a highlight — just to talk to other municipalities about what’s happening in their communities and how they’re dealing with stuff.”
A full outline of the 2018 SILGA resolutions can be found here: http://silga.ca/userfiles/file/2018_convention/SILGA%202018%20Resolutions%20with%20UBCM%20Comments.pdf.
