THEVOICE | 2 Vernon WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2021 | prepares for byelection Citizens are getting ready for Vernon's unexpected byelection = By PATRICK WACHTER till in mourning over the S sudden death of a city coun- cillor earlier this year, the city of Vernon is preparing to replace her in a byelection even as the pandemic continues. Jon Frederick is one of the many people from the city of 40,000 at the northern end of the Okanagan Valley anticipating the Dec 4. election. Asa personal gym trainer, he hopes that the newly elected city councillor will be against implementing strict COVID-19 guidelines. “I'm very disappointed with how our city [Vernon] has overreacted to COVID-19 and Dr. Bonnie Henry’s control. As a personal trainer, and my wife who is a bodybuilder, we were unable to do our job due to the continued closure of gyms and capacity limits.” Wayne Gondor, a retired truck driver, has lived in Vernon, B.C. for his entire life. At the age of 56, his hopes for the new city councillor will focus on garbage and recycling poli- cies. Gondor is looking for a city coun- cil member that can “Do a better job in assisting seniors on how to prop- erly deal with trash day. I have a had a month of no trash or recycling being picked up because I am not sure where to leave it.” Gondor also commented on the late councillor: “I did not vote for her, but my wife Helen once met her at a coffee shop one day and Dalvir complimented Helen’s skirt that she wore that day. It’s a shame that she passed away at such a young age and of cancer too.” Dean Cross, a banker, who was a close friend of Nahal, expressed a fond memory about the late councillor, “Dalvir was an incred- ibly strong-willed, dedicated, and driven individual, with a deep sense of integrity. She always impressed me with her determination and was very well informed and well-spoken on just about any topic one could think of. Vernon and all of B.C. has suffered a big loss with her passing. It was a privilege to know her.” Cross hopes that the new council- lor “is a committed to the commu- nity of Vernon like Dalvir was.” Cross elaborated, “No one can replace Dalvir, but interacting in the community like Dalvir is possible. The next city councillor needs to be committed to housing affordability, fixing homelessness, and the student debt crisis.” Nahal was first elected to Vernon city council in 2014. During her tenure, Nahal served on many city committees: the affordable housing advisory committee; audit commit- tee; biosolids advisory committee; and the Greater Vernon advisory committee. The candidate nomination period began Oct. 19, with the campaign set to start on Nov. 6 and continue until election day on Dec 4. Vernon councillor Dalvir Nahal lost her battle with cancer on Sept. 5, and passed away at the age of 45. PHoTo PROVIDED BY KELOWNA CAPITAL NEWS CITY OF VERNON GENERAL INFORMATION OF VERNON SOURCE: VERNON.CA 43,315 Population of Vernon. The entire Okanagan Valley region has a population of over 360,000 1 hours of drive from 4 /2 the City of Vancouver $59 353 Average household income of citizens of Vernon 96 City of Vernon is 95.76 km? in size There are currently 6 members on the city council including the mayor EDITOR SENA LAW 356 SIZE $25 % OS SATIVA 3 CHEMDAWG % THINK FAST + GATHER % GOD BUD ze COLD CREEK KUSH $30 * MANGO HAZE % BLUE NOVA $35 * HIGH SEAS ORG $40 % SAGE N' SOUR * BIG BUDDHA CHEESE + THE ULTIMATE 4 ICE CREAM CAKE $45-* GREEN KRAKEN % COOKIES & CREAM % GREEN GELATO ++ ROCKSTAR KUSH + SALT SPRING SUGAR STAR + ISLAND MK ULTRA S50 # ALIEN COOKIES % STRAWNANA % OG KUSH % DEJA GLU ORG % SFV ORG % OS INDICA 7G SIZE $50: ISLAND HONEY S60 % ULTRA SOUR 4 TANGERINE DREAM $80 % BLUE DREAM ORG 65 % NICE CREAM $85 % AFGHANI DRIFTER 50 % PINK KUSH $50 x AFGHAN KUSH 286 SIZE $90 4 $100 * JEAN GUY * GOD BUD 146 $120 % BLUE DREAM $130 * SUNDAE DRIVER $140 % 3 SAINTS SATIVA % WHITE RHINO + BLUEBERRY KUSH % 3 SAINTS INDICA $150 % OS RESERVE SATIVA % GORILLA GLUE + LEMON MARGY % ULTRA SOUR % SOUR KUSH $100 Glenn Cormier, co-owner of Happy Isle Cannabis Company, poses in front of a product board at Bowen Island's only legal cannabis business. PHoT0 suBMITTED BY GLENN CORMIER Pot shops get OK Bowen Island passes a bylaw to legalize re- tail cannabis stores across the municipality = By EMILY LYTH hree years after Canada greenlighted the sale of lawful recreational mari- juana, Bowen Island has legalized local pot stores with virtu- ally no public opposition. The island municipality north- west of mainland Vancouver initially issued a blanket prohibition of cannabis stores. A sole exception was made for businesses applying for spot rezoning, provided they obtained provincial sales licences and adhered to specific guidelines. Happy Isle Cannabis Company opened in May 2019 less than a kilometre from Bowen’s Snug Cove ferry terminal, and became the only legal retail cannabis store on the island. Glenn Cormier, the store’s co-owner, says he helped Bowen’s municipal government navigate the nation’s legalization of cannabis. “For me, the extra process of rezoning at a local level was unnec- essary, and I tried to communicate that,” Cormier said. “But I also understood that cannabis was a very new thing, and people were tread- ing very lightly on how to proceed at the local government level.” Rather than wait up to a year to permanently rezone their store’s property for retail cannabis sale, Cormier says they chose to apply for a temporary use permit. In just three months, Happy Isle Cannabis Company was approved to open by the municipality. “The only challenge with a temporary use [permit] is it is temporary,” Cormier said. “It gives you a three-year operating time, and after that three years is up, you still need to go through your [perma- nent] rezoning.” Happy Isle Cannabis Compa- ny’s application for its permanent zoning permit was approved earlier this year without any disputes from the public or municipality. During the store’s zoning appli- cation process, two of the munic- ipality’s committees suggested implementing a bylaw that would allow cannabis sales across the island. On Oct. 12, the municipality adopted that bylaw after months of council meetings and public input. According to Cormier, none of Bowen Island’s residents seemed to oppose the bylaw. Council received only four letters from residents addressing the matter, all of them in support of the bylaw, and one of them from Corm- ier and co-owner David Bellringer. Rev. Lorraine Ashdown, minister of the Little Red Church United, has lived on Bowen Island for 20 years. She says that if anyone has been opposing the bylaw, they’re a “silent minority.” “I’m glad it’s there,” Rev. Ashdown said of Happy Isle Cannabis Company. “I think some people require some of the products that they have for pain control and other anxiety issues.” The initial recommendation to implement a bylaw banning canna- bis sales came from the Union of British Columbia Municipalities, which lobbies on behalf of local governments across the province. Cormier says the bylaw confused many residents at first. “A lot of people didn’t understand what was going on,” Cormier said. “Cannabis is becoming legal, why would our supposedly liberal little government here on Bowen Island want to make it all illegal?” Maureen Nicholson, a Bowen Island councillor, says that imple- menting the union’s bylaw system helped the island to open a legal cannabis store faster than other municipalities in B.C. “The fact that we banned it did not indicate that we didn’t support it,” Nicholson said. “It demon- strated that we wanted to be able to respond as quickly as possible if a prospective retail cannabis oppor- tunity arose.” Happy Isle Cannabis Company was the 14th retail cannabis store to be issued a legal operating licence by the province’s Liquor and Canna- bis Regulation Branch. There have now been nearly 400 licences issued across B.C. Despite the municipality’s long process to legalize retail cannabis sale across the island, both Corm- ier and Nicholson say it’s unlikely they'll see another store open on Bowen. “I don’t anticipate that there will be a massive surge of additional cannabis stores,” Nicholson said. “I mean we're a small island. There are relatively few retail areas.” Cormier says that issuing another cannabis licence on Bowen isn’t logical considering the number of potential customers that live in the municipality. Based off a recent BC Stats popu- lation estimate for the province, there are just over 13,300 residents per each of the 389 non-medical retail cannabis stores in B.C. Approximately 3,680 residents live on Bowen Island, meaning that Happy Isle Cannabis Company already has a much smaller potential customer base than the rest of the province’s pot stores. Cormier says that the store has not yet “tapped into” the island’s tourist trade, and its clientele is mainly locals. “We're a very small store,” Corm- ier said. “We do very small revenues in relation to other stores. It doesn’t make sense to have other competi- tive retailers trying to come into the space, it just ends up with two busi- nesses failing.”