More Questions than Answers.
That’s what Williams Lake City Council had before they voted on holding a 30-day online public survey on plans by the Williams Lake Indian Band/Sugar Cane Development Corporation to build a cannabis manufacturing Facility on IR#6 next to Indigenous Bloom.
Mayor Walt Cobb cited several concerns he had.
“The access and egress because of the traffic in that area that’s going to be a huge problem especially if now we’re going to start getting freight trucks in there because if they’re going to be shipping that stuff to other parts of BC, that’s going to be a whole other different intersection”, Cobb said. “The downstream sanitary sewer what is going to go into our sewer system and affect the Lagoon system and our we going to have to have other treatments in there. We have none of that information”.
Other concerns Cobb had were fire protection, sidewalks, site grading and runoff, gas, and hydro lines.
Councillor Jason Ryll said that council is not against this project and invited the Williams Lake Indian Band to be a part of the process, to help find some of the answers to the questions that the City and the public have.
“I’m asking them to get involved”, Ryll said, “Help us understand, help us fight for this deal to make it happen. We want to be advocates for this deal, we believe in the concept of the project”.
Councillor Nelson said, “Under the Community Charter, Section 83, the City has the right to go out and consult with the community and that gives us a sense to be able to give a good education of what’s taking place but also seek the community opinion, and they’re welcome to come in and build”.
The Williams Lake Indian Band’s micro-cannabis cultivation and farmgate retail facility will be an approximately seven thousand square foot building including a twenty-one thousand-foot growing space that will cost up to two point five million to start up and create up to 20 permanent jobs.
The location of the facility is on First Nations land within City limits.