Toronto makes $0 from pot shops, Mayor Tory learns 3 years after legalization

Three years after the sale of cannabis was legalized in Ontario, Toronto Mayor John Tory learned the city does not generate any revenues from these stores.

In an email obtained through Freedom of Information by Taxi News, Tory’s advisor Steevan Sritharan asks Licensing Director Carleton Grant about the payments made to the City of Toronto through this program. The answer (in bold, below) is “zero dollars,” except for funding dedicated to law enforcement:

“Hello everyone,
I hope are you having a good start to the week.
The Mayor raised some questions this morning that I hope one of you can answer.
1) How much revenue does the City get from Cannabis stores/licenses? Do we get any at all? Or is it just
the Ontario Cannabis Legalization Implementation Fund that we have received from the province?

The short answer is $0. However, the City of Toronto has received a total of $8.972 million over the past 3 years from the Ontario Cannabis Legalization Implementation Funding (OCLIF), which has been
dedicated for local policing, by-law enforcement, legal, and court costs.”