London, Ont. seeks clarity as pot smells, and complaints mount

Spring weather has brought back a pungent odour from a medical marijuana growing operation in northwest London, say frustrated neighbours.

City officials, meanwhile, have a conference call scheduled next week with Health Canada, the federal agency that oversees pot production, to get clarity on the rights and responsibilities municipalities have to deal with the cannabis industry.

Hyde Park residents and business owners first started raising a stink in the fall about an odour coming from the former Spencer Steel building at 1490 North Routledge Park, where an estimated 1,800 cannabis plants are being legally grown for medical marijuana users.

Coun. Josh Morgan, whose Ward 7 encompasses the operation, says he contacted Health Canada and the office of Bill Blair, the minister of border security and organized crime reduction, in February to request a meeting on the issue.

“I’ve been a little bit frustrated with the pace of that meeting being organized,” Morgan said.

“Ensuring that the different municipal departments know what they can do, how they can do it and where they can do it . . . is important.”

There’s been confusion about what role the city plays in policing odours coming from a cannabis growing operation. London bylaw boss Orest Katolyk previously said enforcement of smells didn’t fall under the jurisdiction of municipalities and  he forwarded complaints to Health Canada and Ministry of the Environment.

Heather Chapman, London’s manager of municipal bylaw enforcement services, says she’ll have more information after discussions between the city and Health Canada next week.

Adults with pot prescriptions may grow their own cannabis or appoint an individual approved by Health Canada to do it for them. These growers, like the one in Hyde Park, are separate from the country’s nearly 150 commercial licensed producers, large-scale growers who supply most of Canada’s medical marijuana and all its recreational pot.

Kate Young, the Liberal for London West, has raised the Hyde Park issue with Blair, who also is responsible for administering the Cannabis Act, the federal law governing the drug.

Blair, in turn, brought the information to the appropriate officials, Young said.

“Everybody is aware that it is a concern,” she said, noting other MPs are facing similar issues in their ridings.

The Hyde Park Business Improvement Association continues to receive complaints about the odour, especially on days when the smell is strong, general manger Donna Szpakowski said.

“We expected the odours to be more pronounced in the warmer weather,” Szpakowski said.

“I’m sitting in my office in Oakridge and I can smell it right now.”

Ali Mankal, who lives about three blocks from the former Spencer Steel factory, says the odour is affecting his family’s quality of life and he worries about the summer.

“As it gets warmer, the smell gets worse,” Mankal said.

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