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The Senate of Canada keeps on stirring the pot when it comes to the Liberal Government’s cannabis legalization bill. In the years since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s 2015 election campaign promise, the marijuana plans have been anything but an easy high for the Liberal leader.
On Wednesday (May 02), Trudeau refused to give a straight answer around whether his government would bend to demands from the Senate's Aboriginal Peoples committee to delay legalization by as much as a year. The committee’s call comes as a result of the government’s “atrocious” consultation efforts with Indigenous communities, according to The Canadian Press.
Ignoring questions about delay as he entered a meeting of his caucus on Wednesday, Trudeau said: “We'll continue to consult a broad range of Canadians [about legalisation]. And as our parliamentary secretary Bill Blair says regularly, legalization is not an event - it's a process. And that process will continue.”
The following day, he was more assertive in Ottawa, stating: “We’re going to bring in legalization as we’ve committed to this summer, on schedule. Make no mistake – this is a public health and public safety issue that we committed to in the election campaign.”
A delay in the legalization process wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing for the insurance industry, or for the eventual cannabis business insurance clientele.
At present, the stigma of illegality connected to marijuana is dissuading many insurers from getting their hands dirty and venturing too close to the industry. There’s a gap in the cannabis insurance market that will need to be filled once insurance professionals gain a better understanding of the product.
Speaking recently to Insurance Business, Barinder Rasode, president and CEO of NICHE Canada (National Institute for Cannabis Health and Education), noted: “The government needs to support regulated industries, like insurance, in getting to grips with cannabis legalization. They need to make sure there are resources and educational tools available to educate industries that might soon be regulated differently to how they have been in the past.”
NICHE is an independent, not-for- profit organization that provides impartial and evidence-based research about cannabis production and use in Canada. Based in Vancouver with a national vision, NICHE was established in 2017 after discussions with the Federal and Provincial governments, industry, universities, patients, consumers, non- governmental organizations, law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders.
CEO Rasode didn’t always have an interest in cannabis. In fact, she identifies herself as part of a generation who potentially view cannabis with caution and “as a gateway drug.” After learning more about the industry, Rasode has transitioned into someone who understands cannabis and advocates its legalization as long as “the regulations are quite clear.”
