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During a Senate committee panel this afternoon (April 30), the CEO of an association with no bearing on cannabis but great interest in Canada’s real estate agents made his case for a moratorium on the home cultivation of cannabis under Bill C-45.
‘The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) represents over 125,000 real estate agents across the country, however, we’re here today on behalf of home-buyers, property owners, and their tenants,’ said CEO Michael Bourque.
‘Bill C-45 will not directly harm realtors, but it will impact their customers… Indoor cultivation can cause damage that will result in increased expenses, especially for landlords, who will then have to pass on these costs on to tenants. This will raise rents for Canadians, and will disproportionately impact lower income Canadians.’
Borque went on, conflating the impact of large medical cannabis grow operations created under the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR), with the personal cultivation of four plants, telling committee members that landlords could face reductions in the value of their homes if a tenant decided to grow their own cannabis.
‘Municipalities have struggled for years with major problems caused by the legal home cultivation of marijuana for medicinal purposes… We know fire chiefs are concerned about fires; police organizations are concerned with increased crime; municipalities have concerns about safety and cost; health authorities are concerned about vulnerable people exposed to fungus and mould.’
Dont confuse #MMAR #ACMPR ‘Over production’ with Home Cultivation of 4 Plants! We arent talking about that here @VancouverPD. @SenateCA is discussing #C45 #CannabisAct
— Deepak Anand (@_deepakanand) April 30, 2018
In a statement released by the association during the panel, CREA President Barb Sakkau summed up Borque’s fear-filled address to the committee:
‘We’ve heard from homeowners and tenants across the country who are worried about living beside grow-ops. What does this do to their home value? Will this increase their rent? How safe will their kids be? Will their quality of life diminish because of the prevalence of drugs in their neighbourhood?’
For Jonathan Page, a cannabis scientist and the owner and CEO of Anandia Labs who sat on the panel this afternoon in Ottawa, the so-called concerns of the CREA are nothing but plain old ‘fear mongering’.
Speaking to the Straight by phone following the panel, he said he was surprised that personal cultivation has become such a ‘hot button issue’.
‘Driving is a big deal, and age of access is the other one, but this whole question of four plants in peoples’ homes is really under the spotlight,’ he said.
For Page, confusing senators (and Canadians who may have been watching at home) with information concerning much larger grow operations than the four plants promised to Canadians is disingenuous.
‘They were borrowing from the most problematic aspects of the MMAR overgrow days, during a time when there was no outlet for recreational use,’ he said.
‘The CREA used that to imply that 40,000 grow-ops in B.C. resulted in damaged homes, wrecking opportunities for tenants, and then rolled it all up into a concoction that suggested not just owners would be affected, but that it would lead to taking away housing stock from low income people,’ he said. It was a twist Page admitted he wasn’t expecting.
So we have actual biologists and cannabis experts telling the Senate committee that there’s no real, factual concerns with 4 plants, but they prefer to listen to the police and some guy from a landlord association, neither of whom have any relevant qualifications. #c45 #SOCI
— Corey Balderdaski (@Vlermp) April 30, 2018
Page said he was surprised to see other panelists parroting the same lines. He said two police officers on the panel, Inspector Bill Spearn with the Vancouver Police Department and Deputy Chief Constable Mike Serr with the Abbotsford Police Department, seemed to apply the same rationale to the provision as Borque, rather than simply thinking about the potential impacts of four plants.
‘What was on display today was an example of the inability to adjust the prohibition mindset to a new reality,’ Page said.
While he and another panelist with a background in science, Ernest Small, were largely ignored throughout the discussion, Page said he was impressed with the way senators seemed to be taking Borque’s statements ‘with a grain of salt.’
When asked whether or not he thought the Senate would suggest an amendment for a moratorium on personal cultivation, Page said despite the scrutiny the provision is receiving, he doesn’t believe it will be cut from the bill.
‘It’s been singled out as an area where there is a lot concern being expressed, but I also think it’s a useful and important part of the legislation,’ he said.
‘Cannabis plants are not dangerous. Cannabis isn’t dangerous to the people in homes, and it’s also not dangerous to the house itself. On both accounts, the concerns are unwarranted.’
