The City of Delta will continue lobbying senior levels of government to further regulate cannabis production on agricultural land.
On Feb. 11, councillors voted in favour of pushing Health Canada to impose a moratorium on issuing licences for cannabis production facilities in Delta until the federal department sets up a system to mitigate odours coming from greenhouse operations. In addition, council also passed a recommendation to lobby the province to ban cannabis cultivation on agricultural land.
The concern, as noted in a report by city staff, is that with more greenhouses converting to cannabis production following the legalization of recreational marijuana last October, there will be fewer food producers in Delta.
The report points out that after Houweling’s Nursery greenhouses finally convert to cannabis production, the facility — at 2.2 million square-feet — will be Canada’s second largest. All told, Delta will be home to more than five million square-feet of cannabis-producing greenhouses.
“With over 50 percent of Delta’s land base being within the [Agricultural Land Reserve], many more cannabis production facilities could establish themselves within city limits with little control from Delta, and cumulatively result in less areas available for local food production,” the report says.