New Sharing Model For ‘Pot Pie’

The federal government is sweetening the pot when it comes to revenues generated by recreational marijuana sales once that becomes legal in Canada next July.

Ottawa has agreed to give the provinces and territories a 75 per cent share of the tax revenues from the sale of legalized cannabis for next two years.

That’s up from the earlier 50-50 split.

Some of the funds gong to provinces will be passed down to municipalities who will be having to deal with news costs for things like policing and bylaws.

“This agreement is a win for our province as we made a very clear case that British Columbians will bear the majority of costs when cannabis is legalized,” says BC’s Finance Minister Carole James. “We negotiated an agreement for B.C. that means the majority of cannabis revenue will flow to the provinces so we can invest in programs to keep people safe and remove the criminal element from cannabis.”

Finance Minister Bill Morneau says Ottawa’s share of the revenue will be up to a maximum of 100-million-dollars a year — with any balance over and above that limit going to the provinces.