An Enniskillen councillor is frustrated Health Canada doesn’t seem to be doing much to make sure cannabis operations follow the rules.
And Mary Lynne McCallum says residents may have to “bombard” officials with complaints to get anything done.
Early this year, McCallum sent a letter to Health Canada voicing concerns about the smell coming from High Park Farms on Lasalle Line.
Neighbours have long complained about the skunk-like odour coming from the 16-acre complex. One family, the Brands who live directly across from the operation, have filed a complaint with the Normal Farm Practices Protection Board over the issue of light and smell. It has been stalled by the restrictions around COVID-19.
McCallum’s letter to Health Canada asks what exactly the federal government can do to keep the odour under control.
David Pellman, director general of compliance with Health Canada’s Cannabis Branch, says High Park Farms was inspected in June 2019 and “odours were detected outside the facility.
“Health Canada issued a report to the licence holder with a citation for release of cannabis odours.”
Pellman says High Park submitted “corrective action and a prevention plan..that was deemed acceptable.”
McCallum says what High Park has done has never been revealed.
“I’d love to say here, this is what they did,” she says. “Even in the third reply, I said, you know, I’d love to see what the action plan was.”
McCallum says there has been some improvement to the smell over the past three years but “ I don’t think it’s ever going to go away.”
And the councillor fears there is little Enniskillen can do now. “Our problem was it was existing greenhouse and they were just converting it. We were told Health Canada is regulating all these nuisances and they’re not,” she says.
“The only thing we can do, is to like what Trevor (Brand) is doing right now. He’s appealed to the Normal Farm Practices board. Well, that’s going to take a year, two years, who knows. And it’s going to cost them 30 40, 50 $60,000.”
McCallum adds the municipality can stop future expansion by going to the Local Planning Advisory Board, “and I don’t think that’s a good way to spend our taxpayer dollars.”
McCallum says the municipality is working with planners from the County of Lambton to come up with a Cannabis bylaw, but it won’t govern the Lasalle Line facility.
She places the blame for the excessive smell squarely on Health Canada, saying they led the municipality to believe they would be making sure the operation would follow the rules.
“If there were no intentions for them to do that, they should have told us.”
McCallum feels for the neighbours putting up with the smell. “They can’t do anything at all, other than sending emails to the cannabis hotline. People who complained to me, that’s what I tell them, bombard them. Every time you smell it send them an email…. If they go out five times a day and smell it send off another email to Health Canada.”

To report an incident online go to https://www.healthycanadians.gc.ca/en/health-canada/services/drugs-medication/cannabis/recalls-adverse-reactions-reporting/reporting-form.html