VANCOUVER— Mayor-elect Kennedy Stewart offered no major revelations on his plans for Vancouver’s cannabis dispensaries Saturday, following a close victory at the ballot box which saw him defeat the Non-Partisan Association’s Ken Sim by fewer than 1,000 votes.
Stewart, a former federal New Democrat MP and Vancouver’s first independent mayor in three decades, acknowledged any retail pot shop needs to be approved by both the province and city before it could be licensed to operate, saying he felt close collaboration with the province is “absolutely essential.”
“I know there are 19 license-holders now, so they would be given preference in the sense that they’ve been playing by the rules,” he told StarMetro late Saturday night. “They should get the first crack at things.”
But what excites Stewart most, he said, was what he called the “research and development” potential of the cannabis sector.
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