Surrey, which is predicted to become the largest city in British Columbia by 2029, has voted to allow 12 cannabis stores, two in each of the city’s town centres.
The proposed framework for cannabis retail was developed in February and recommended two stores in each of City Centre, Guildford, Fleetwood, Newton, Cloverdale, and Semiahmoo
At the moment, residents of Surrey need to go to neighbouring cities Delta, White Rock, or the Township of Langley to access a legal cannabis store.
The city plans to start accepting applications in the second quarter of 2024.
Surrey should see more stores open in the future. 12 stores amounts to a density of only 0.03 stores per square kilometre and a store to population ratio of 1:47,000. In comparison, Vancouver has a store to population ratio of 1:8,200.
Other BC Cities Slow to Legalize
Surprisingly, for a province known internationally for BC bud, it has taken BC’s cities some time to buy into legal cannabis retailing. It took until January 2023 for Whistler to finalize bylaw amendments to regulate cannabis retail stores. Whistler started by approving four stores in June 2023 and has seen more retailers open since that time.
Pitt Meadows was another holdout, and it wasn’t until July 2023 that one store was approved. At a council meeting on January 9, 2024, two more cannabis store applications were given approval to proceed.
BC’s 2023 cannabis retail sales from 500 licensed stores were over $795 million in 2023.