Indigenous kept from economic opportunities from pot legalization: Senate committee

A Senate committee says the present hashish market and laws has stored Indigenous Peoples from sharing within the financial alternatives that the legalization of leisure pot created.

The standing Senate committee on Indigenous Peoples desires the nation to shift its method to hashish to assist Indigenous communities and entrepreneurs higher profit from the pot market.

The committee discovered some First Nations are fully blocked from taking part within the hashish market as a result of some provinces and territories haven’t responded to their requests for agreements to supply and promote hashish.

While agreements have been reached in British Columbia, Ontario and Saskatchewan, Indigenous communities instructed the committee Quebec and the Northwest Territories haven’t related strikes.

The committee additionally desires an excise tax-sharing framework that’s particular to Indigenous communities to be developed, so First Nations communities can share revenues extra broadly.

First Nations communities don’t obtain a portion of the tax, which is shared between the federal, provincial and territorial governments and likewise levied on alcohol, tobacco and gasoline.

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed June 15, 2023.