Senate committee supports amending cannabis bill to let provinces ban homegrown pot

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Senate committee supports amending cannabis bill to let provinces ban homegrown pot

4 June 2018

By Joan Bryden

OTTAWA—A Senate committee passed 40 amendments Monday to the federal government’s cannabis legalization bill, including one that would allow provinces and territories to ban homegrown marijuana. But the social affairs committee refused to accept a Conservative amendment that would have prohibited home cultivation outright. And it defeated another that would have indefinitely delayed implementation of the legislation until the government reports to both houses of Parliament on the measures it’s taking to deal with the concerns of Indigenous communities.

The vast majority of the amendments approved were largely technical in nature and would have little affect on the substance of Bill C-45. Indeed, 29 of them were proposed by the sponsor of the bill in the Senate, independent Sen. Tony Dean, which suggests they have the blessing of the government.

The committee’s amended version of the bill will now go back to the Senate as a whole, where senators will decide whether to accept or reject the amendments or propose additional changes. The various factions in the Senate have agreed to hold a final vote on the bill by June 7, which would allow the Trudeau government to deliver on its promise to have the legal recreational cannabis regime up and running by late summer.