Heather Wright/The Independent

Enniskillen Councillor Mary-Lynne McCallum is resigning from township council at the end of the month, frustrated with a pending agreement which exempts a local greenhouse from new cannabis regulations.

McCallum officially tendered her resignation Dec. 9, saying she would serve until the end of the month. 

The 14-year veteran of council says she was there to serve the people. “The good part, I think, was just interacting with the people that we’re spending the money for at the township… trying to get what everybody needs accomplished,” she tells The Independent.

But she says a lack of communication around the township council table and frustration over the recent compromise the township reached with Enniskillen Produce at the Ontario Land Tribunal led to her resignation.

McCallum championed the concerns of neighbours of the greenhouse once occupied by the cannabis grower High Park Farms who complained of the odour and light coming from the building. After High Park closed in 2021, McCallum pushed for new rules to increase distances between the homes and future cannabis growers.

It took more than a year for council to pass the new rules but not before The Independent revealed a new cannabis company, Cannim Canada, was onsite and that a letter informing the township had arrived while the rules were under discussion at council.

“I just find the communication at this level is just horrific, and I just I need to know the information before I can make an informed decision, and I don’t always get that, and it’s very frustrating,” McCallum told The Independent after tendering her resignation.

After the zoning rules were passed at council, Enniskillen Produce appealed the rules. Dec. 3, at the Ontario Land Tribunal, the company’s lawyer announced an agreement had been reached with the township. 

Enniskillen Produce lawyer Scott Snider told the hearing “some modifications” are being proposed to the Official Plan Amendment and zoning bylaw which acknowledge the greenhouse had been “built” for cannabis production and process and “had used the facilities for that use prior” to the zoning changes.

“It was an existing operation,” he added saying Enniskillen Produce would only be subject to the new rules around cannabis should there be a physical expansion of the building.

McCallum says the deal was “pretty much was the last straw.

“I’ve been frustrated for a very long time with lack of communication and information, and it’s just come to a point that I just can’t deal with it anymore. I want to stand up and talk to the people, but I just, I’m not getting enough (information) to do that, and I’m not I’m letting them down.”

McCallum added rulings from bodies like Health Canada, which approves licensing for cannabis growers and the OLT often ignore what their rulings mean to neighbours of the facilities. She believes Health Canada should never have granted a company a license to produce cannabis so close to homes, a fact she believes they never saw.

“That’s my belief that there’s never any actual feet on the ground. It’s done by a video and your business plan.”

It’s unclear when or how McCallum’s seat will be filled.

Ontario’s Municipal Act gives municipalities a number of options including appointing someone who ran in the last election. That option is not available to Enniskillen since the entire council was acclaimed in 2022. 

The township can appoint someone who has not run but agrees to hold the office or it can hold a byelection.

Ennskillen Township will have 60 days to fill the position left by McCallum’s resignation after it has officially declared the seat vacant.