Last night’s public hearing about a proposed bylaw governing marijuana cultivation in the city drew flies.

Kamloops mayor Ken Christian says council showed up to an empty room.

“I was surprised because generally the word cannabis draws a crowd but last night there was nobody there to speak on that issue neither was there any correspondence. Really the issue was where do we locate cannabis production facilities within the City of Kamloops so those would now be on industrial land and then the ALR lands.”

As for the agricultural land reserve and legal cannabis Christian says there is a an issue there with the ALR mandate of facilities with only soil bases.

“Which is interesting because cannabis can only be grown on concrete. Those are kind of alienating ALR lands but it doesn’t seem to be an issue for people. So we have that in place now and we can go forward if there are applicants that wish to put up some of these facilities.”

And Christian anticipates where will be in interest in the city.

“Based on demand I would be optimistic that some of those would locate in Kamloops.”

In fact the city has already had several applications.