Brampton Regional Councillor Rowena Santo’s sat down with us for an interview to discuss the city’s decision on Jan 21/2019 to allow retail cannabis stores. In an 8 to 3 vote, council decided to opt-in to the province’s offer to allow retail cannabis stores.
Santos says that “other municipalities decided to opt-out, that’s their choice, they had their own process, we went through a robust process.” Further, she asked “for how long is Brampton going to live in the shadow of other municipalities? At some point, we have to make our own decisions based on what’s in the best interests of Brampton.”
City Council also asked the city’s MP’s and MPP’s for their opinion on how the city should proceed. Reponses were received from MP Sonia Sidhu, MP Ruby Sahota, MPP Sara Singh, MPP Prabmeet Sarkaria and MP Amarjot Sandhu. Responses were not provided by MP Ramesh Sangha, MP Kamal Khera, MP Raj Grewal, MPP Kevin Yarde or MPP Guratan Singh
Santos explained her reason for opting in:
“We decided to opt-in because we looked at all the evidence, because we did our homework, because we engaged the community. And we made that decision based on the priority of public safety and fiscal responsibility.”
On the university file, Santos said:
“We continue to work closely with Ryerson. Chang School is teaching courses… and also Ryerson is coming to present to council in February. So there is a lot of movement on that file dispite the cancellation of funding.”
