An Iqaluit cannabis store is one step closer to opening at a new location, after the city’s planning committee moved Tuesday to hold a public hearing on a rezoning request needed to allow it to set up shop.
Co-owners of the Higher Experience cannabis store on Fred Coman Street hope to move to a new location on Mattaaq Crescent, about 30 metres from the store’s current location, before their lease expires in August. But they need city council to rezone the new site to allow a cannabis store there.
This is the current location for the Higher Experience cannabis store in Iqaluit, on Fred Coman Street. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Both the current store and the proposed new location are in the city’s core, Deputy Mayor and committee chairperson Kimberly Smith said during Tuesday’s discussion on a rezoning request.
A staff report recommended turning down the request because the new location is close to a school, playground and daycare.
Before the store opened in 2024 there were many concerns about its location in the city core and how close it would be to schools and other “sensitive” areas, Smith said.
“The sky has not fallen from a cannabis retailer being downtown,” she said.
“And, in fact, I think I’ve seen a significant decrease in the amount of illegal drug dealing … that was happening in front of Northmart.
“So I do think it is in the city’s best interest to keep this in the downtown core,” Smith said.
The store’s co-owner Frances Ikeno said Wednesday she expected the rezoning process to be “very similar to the way it was the first time.”
Ikeno said she appreciates that councillors “are very interested in what the public has to say.”
“Everything that they have concerns about regarding these ‘sensitive areas’ — we’ve been here for over a year now and none of it has come to fruition,” she said in a phone interview from Ottawa.
“The vast majority of these concerns are pretty much null,” she said, meaning many were addressed when the store opened in 2024.
For example, she said, the foyer of the current store has an electric door and camera so that customers have to be buzzed in to enter. No one underage gets past the door, she said. The minimum age to buy cannabis in Nunavut is 19.
Adults casually entering with their children are asked to leave immediately, Ikeno added.
She said this will be her second time going through a public hearing, so she’s very familiar with the process and looks forward to it.
The planning and development committee voted Tuesday to move forward with a public hearing and to re-examine conditions related to the proximity of “sensitive uses.”
There was no decision made about when the public hearing will be held.
The Government of Nunavut announced Wednesday afternoon that it has opened a community consultation related to the cannabis store’s relocation.
Under Nunavut’s Cannabis Act, the territorial government must consult the community whenever an application to open a store is received.
The 30-day consultation period will run until March 17, a statement from the GN’s finance department said.
Nunavummiut can submit comments or concerns by emailing cannabis@gov.nu.ca or by calling 867-975-5875.
Ikeno said she hopes the hearing process will prove “the public wants the store there, that they back our small business, and that we’re able to move ahead with things.”
Committee members Amber Aglukark, Solomon Awa, Harry Flaherty and Samuel Tilley voted in favour of holding a public hearing, while Methusalah Kunuk and Simon Nattaq opposed it. Romeyn Stevenson and Kyle Sheppard were absent.