Altona town council has approved the establishment of a retail cannabis store in the downtown core.

On Tuesday night, Council approved Westleaf Inc.'s application to set up shop on 2nd St. NE located in the 'Commercial Central District', an area not part of council's original cannabis retail bylaw passed last year.

The building is located on the east side of 2nd Street NE in downtown Altona

Mayor Al Friesen said council felt it was the right decision.

"It has buffer zone from residential areas, a buffer zone from the youth centre and some of those kinds of concerns that were part of our original discussions and that this company had taken into account on its own. I think those things have been addressed and it should be pointed out that they probably reviewed about half-a-dozen locations in Altona and felt that this was the best one."

Westleaf Chief Commercial Officer, Adam Coates, said they had to take into consideration a number of issues when considering where to put their cannabis retail store, especially in a smaller municipality. The location they selected is in a prime commercial area, but it is also away from some of the sensitive areas of the community, according to Coates.

"We really looked hard at the regulations around proximity to schools to make sure that we far exceeded those distance separations, and also thinking about parks and churches and playgrounds and other places where children often congregate and making sure we're away from those sensitive use areas. But we also want it to be a thriving business because at the end of the day this is bringing new business into the town."

In approving the location of the operation town council did not attach any parameters to the conditional use permit.

"I guess council felt the business would more or less mirror what's happening within the community. That the hours would be similar and that the values of the community would be taken into account as they establish those hours of operation. So, we felt it wasn't fair for us to put a bunch of rules in front of them, rules that are not in place for other retail operations."

About a dozen people observed Tuesday's public hearing and of those in the crowd, three noted their objections to the plan.

"We wrestled with this," said Friesen. "It is, I think, an important decision. I think it's also something that we did on behalf of the community to do our homework and ask the difficult questions because that's the expectation of the people that live here, that we make decisions on behalf of the community and that when we are faced with difficult ones that we wrestle it and take the facts into account and proceed accordingly," said Friesen.

Only one councillor voted against the location for the cannabis store and one other councillor abstained from voting.

The Altona cannabis retail store will be Westleaf's first commercial operation in Manitoba. It is anticipated to open early in the first quarter of 2020.