Province wants to turn dollar store into pot store in one Okanagan city
WEST KELOWNA – The provincial government wants to sell cannabis out of the old Urban Dollar Store building in Westbank Town Centre Mall.
City staff are supporting the Liquor Distribution Branch’s application to rezone the site in order to create what will eventually be the city’s sixth legal cannabis retail store. That report is going to council on Tuesday.
Initially, council was only going to allow four such stores in the Westbank Centre part of city, then they added a fifth. All those applicants have successfully rezoned their properties.
The government proposal is for a 7,116 square foot store in the same mall as the government liquor store and Save-On Foods.
A letter to the city from the Liquor Distribution Branch says it tried to get an application in earlier but was not able to find a suitable location to justify the expense of a long-term lease and renovations.
B.C.’s first legal cannabis store was opened by the Liquor Distribution Branch in Kamloops on Oct. 17, 2018, the day cannabis became legal in Canada.
There are no government run B.C. Cannabis stores in the Okanagan but one is scheduled to open in Penticton’s Power Centre Mall this fall.
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