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ARTICLE · 08 FEBRUARY 2023

Challenging Restrictive Municipal Cannabis Regulation (Part Two): Whose Jurisdiction Is It Anyway?

Gowling WLG
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In Ontario, municipal control of cannabis or any other agricultural production is restricted under the Farming and Food Production Protection Act, 1998 ("FFPPA").

CanadaCannabis & Hemp

Provincial protections from inappropriate municipal control of cannabis production

In Ontario, municipal control of cannabis or any other agricultural production is restricted under the Farming and Food Production Protection Act, 1998 ("FFPPA"). Based on the language of the FFPPA, it is our view that municipalities have no authority over the control of agricultural products, including cannabis.

Where a municipality attempts to restrict the establishment of a cannabis production facility through site-specific zoning by-law amendments prohibiting such facilities as a permitted use, section 6(1) of the FFPPA provides that "No municipal by-law applies to restrict a normal farm practice carried on as part of an agricultural operation."1 A normal farm practice is defined as a practice "conducted in a manner consistent with proper and acceptable customs and standards as established and followed by similar agricultural operations under similar circumstances, or makes

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