It has been nearly four years since cannabis was legalized in Canada, but municipalities in British Columbia have yet to see a single dime in cannabis tax revenue from the province.

That is as the B.C. Government says it has received nearly $113 million in federal excise duty payments, as well as another $91.3 million in provincial sales taxes as of May.

Speaking on NL Newsday, Kamloops Mayor Ken Christian is once again pushing for a cannabis revenue sharing agreement with the provincial government.

“We were the ones that put the work in. The stores, the rezoning, all of the rules and bylaws in and around their operation,” he said. “Kamloops, for instance, is dotted with cannabis retail outlets, and other than the business licence fees, we have received nothing from the government in terms of what should be our share.”

“There are certainly policing costs. There’s planning costs. There are bylaw and community services costs. We feel that the taxpayers of Kamloops should be reimbursed for accommodating this industry and it just hasn’t happened yet.”

Back in 2019, Christian told NL News he was hoping to see a revenue sharing agreement in place by the spring of 2020. More than two years later, he remains optimistic that there will be some progress made in the near future.

“I don’t have any magical insights [on why it hasn’t happened yet] but I would suppose, if I was a betting person, that part of the problem is that they really haven’t stemmed the flow of unregulated cannabis in British Columbia, ” Christian said.

“I think that may be one of the issues they’re still wrestling with.”

Resolutions calling for that revenue sharing agreement from the province have been endorsed four times in the past five years at the annual UBCM convention.

Ahead of legalization, the federal government said excise cannabis tax revenue would be split 25/75 between Ottawa and the provinces and territories but so far, only Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta have passed on this tax revenue to local governments.