Premier Wynne wants answers about Toronto's first pot store location near school

Cannabis/Shutterstock

The proximity of Toronto’s first government-run pot shop to a school has Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne looking for answers.

Wynne, speaking to the press on Thursday from Mount Sinai Hospital, said she was going to find out “exactly how the decision was made.”

Ontario announced the first four locations of their Ontario Cannabis Stores (OCS) yesterday, including a location in the east end of Toronto.

It quickly was revealed that the store was within a half kilometre from the Blantyre Public School on Victoria Park Avenue.

The Toronto location of the OCS is part of an existing strip mall on Gerrard Street East.

According to a report by the Toronto Star, both elementary and high school students frequent the area for lunch and after-school activities.

“My priority in the implementation of the federal government’s decision to legalize cannabis has been safety. It’s been safety and security particularly for young people,” Wynne said at Thursday’s conference.

“I just want to know that the school board had input into it. I know there are a lot of factors and in Toronto, there are 800 schools so there are schools in many, many, many neighbourhoods.”

Wynne got her start in politics as School Board Trustee, but officials from both the Toronto District School Board and Blantyre Public School have told the press that they were not consulted during the process.

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