With physical cannabis stores now open in Ontario, the Premier is trying to soothe concerns about your I.D. being scanned when you enter.
When asked whether customers’ I.D. being put into a database is a privacy concern, Doug Ford says it is important to keep track of who is buying cannabis right now.
“We have a lot of learning to do, the whole country does. If there’s things that people may not be pleased about, we’re always open to changing it and tweaking the system.”
Speaking at a news conference on Monday, the Premier points out that online cannabis orders were already being kept track of.
Ford is also defending his limit on the number of overdose prevention sites in the province.
The Ford government recently gave the approval for 15 overdose prevention sites, including one in Thunder Bay.
The Premier says while he supports treatment for people using drugs, he says the limit is meant to keep multiple sites from being set up too close to each other or to residential neighbourhoods.
“It’s all right for people to say, ‘Yes, help them, help them, help them,’ and with all due respect, if I put one beside your house, you’d be going ballistic,” Ford argues. “But I want to try to help these people. It’s okay–yeah, help them, but not in my back yard.”
The recent news conference also touched on possible changes to Ontario licence plates.
He was asked about rumours that new licence plates would read “Open For Business”.
Ford isn’t saying for sure what we could expect to replace “Yours To Discover”.
“I can’t comment until the budget [is announced], but we are going to make some changes there, so I can’t divulge exactly what they [will] say.”
Ford notes that changes will affect both commercial and non-commercial licence plates.
