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th ei fp .c a Th e IF P -H al to n H ill s | T hu rs da y, D ec em be r 28 ,2 01 7 | 6 The Georgetown Independent & Free Press, published every Thursday, is a division of the Metroland Media Group Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Torstar Corpora- tion. The Metroland family of newspapers is comprised of more than 80 community publications across Ontario. The Independent & Free Press is a member of the National NewsMedia Council. Complainants are urged to bring their concerns to the attention of the newspaper and, if not satisfied, write The National NewsMedia Council, Suite 200, 890 Yonge St., Toronto, ON M4W 2H2. Phone: 416-340-1981 Web: www.mediacouncil.ca newsroom@theifp.ca IndependentAndFreePress @IFP_11 ABOUT US The Independent & Free Press 280 Guelph Street, Unit 77 Georgetown, ON L7G 4B1 Phone: 905-873-0301 Classifieds: 905-234-1016 Fax: 905-873-0398 Letters to the editor All letters must be fewer than 200 words and include your name and telephone number for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit, condense or reject letters. Delivery For all delivery inquiries, please e-mail ssoles@metroland.com or call 905-234-1019. CONTACT US Publisher Neil Oliver General Manager Steve Foreman Retail Advertising Manager Cindi Campbell Regional Managing Editor Chris Vernon Regional Managing Digital Editor Robyn Wilkinson Distribution Representative Iouliana Polar Classified/Real Estate Kristie Pells Regional Production Manager Manuel Garcia Production Shelli Harrison WHO WE ARE OPINION • EDITORIAL • • LETTERS & COMMENTARY • Let's be honest: Part of the appeal of legalizing canna- bis comes down to money. The demand and consumption already exists. We already regulate, tax and sell other potentially altering substances such as tobacco and alcohol. Governments need money, and no one wants to raise taxes. So why not legalize and control pot, and rake in the tax revenue, as with other so-called "sin" products? Why not have a revenue stream that flows into public coffers instead of the wallets of illegal players? On the surface, that part of the cannabis conundrum is fairly simple. But as usual, once you start drilling down into details, simplicity goes out the window. This week, provincial finance ministers and their federal counterpart are meeting in Ottawa. Prior to that meet- ing Ottawa proposed a deal which would see tax revenue generated by legal cannabis sales split 50/50 between the provinces and feds. Not surprisingly, provincial ministers didn't like the sound of that. What is Ottawa doing to earn its half of the pie, they asked? Other than the legislative part of legalization, the heavy lifting - as it stands now - will fall upon province and cities. Enforcement. Public educa- tion. Road safety. Addiction prevention and treatment. All these are matters of provincial jurisdiction. So why should Ottawa get half the cake? And speak- ing of cake, just how much money are we talking about? It's a relevant point, especially since there is much dis- agreement on that. Back in 2016, a CIBC World Markets reported estimated tax revenue to be as much as $5 bil- lion. That's a lot of dough for public treasuries. But a more recent report from the C.D. Howe Institute is much more conservative, predicting tax revenue of between $400 and $500 million annually. How could two credible projections be so far apart? The American experience is instructive. In Colorado, where pot has been legal since 2014, half a billion in tax revenue has been generated. In Nevada, taxes from the first month of legalized sales - July - came in at a whop- ping $3.6 million. The very next month, that jumped to $5 million. In Alaska, the revenue slice for August was $700,000. And in Oregon, cheques were recently sent out to schools, public health agencies, police and local govern- ments to divvy up $85 million in cannabis tax revenue. Recently, the provinces and feds announced they have reached an agreement to split tax revenues - 75 per cent to the provinces, 25 per cent to the feds. That certainly seems more equitable, although it's not entirely clear that Ottawa will incur costs to justify that. But Finance Minister Bill Morneau says the federal portion will be capped at $100 million, with anything other than that going back to the provinces. Provincial officials seem satisfied, which is good as there is a tremendous amount of legalization work re- maining. It's good that this part of the equation, at least, seems solved to everyone's satisfaction. Slicing up the cannabis tax revenue pie There must be an election coming I had to chuckle at the new lanes open article on Highway 410, I will go out on a limb here and suggest that not one of these fine Liberal politicians in the article travelled the 410 on a daily basis like the rest of us suckers have over the last what five-six-seven years, while this poorly planned disaster went on? I have seen this highway ripped up and repaved in the same spot numerous times for god only knows what reason, it never seemed to end, but yet it continues. I remember one night (early morning) going to work at Derry and Kenne- dy Road in Mississauga and because of lane and ex- it closures I was sitting at Carlingview and Dixon Road at 3 a.m. because of those exit closures and no body could care less be- cause it didn't affect them. Thankfully, I knew the city and where I was going so that I could navigate this mess. Did anybody ever call the 410 hotline? Apparent- ly, they forgot to hook it up at the other end. I called and was met with dead si- lence. No doubt all of these fine Liberal politicians were home soundly asleep in their nice warm beds while this egregious mess contin- ued. Nobody can possibly imagine the billions of li- tres of fuel wasted, tens of millions of lost man hours, the number of smash ups that have gone on while this disaster continued. I'll bet there are a mil- lion horror stories out there. An organized mess is and was the only way to de- scribe it, and actually it is still under construction to this minute. There is one reason and only one reason why this part of the highway is final- ly open. Are we all that na- ive? Can anybody smell an election coming? Steve Panchuk Thanks for the 'holiday wishes' With our copy of the newspaper recently, we re- ceived a "Holiday Wishes" card from our carrier sim- ply named Jim. I would think you are lucky to have such a person working for you who obvi- ously likes his job very much sometimes deliver- ing in cold and bad weath- er. Although I have met him several times in the past few years he has been delivering in our area, it will be nice to say hello to him by name the next time we meet. Joe Andely Letters to the Editor See what our readers are saying about the issues that matter to them. www.theifp.ca/letters