The COVID-19 outbreak has forced the Town of Altona to delay its retail cannabis plebiscite.

Originally, a series of public information events were being planned in a lead up to the vote scheduled for May 13, 2020.

"But we've decided that it doesn't really make sense to try to hold an event in which we want mass community participation as well as the opportunity to share information and discuss, to have that now in the midst of what we say is extenuating circumstances," explained Mayor Al Friesen.

Working in collaboration with the Manitoba Department of Justice, Friesen says the Town had two alternative options to pick from - hold the vote later in spring or wait until the fall as Council wanted to avoid a summer vote.

"When all was said and done we thought in order to ensure it was properly advertised, that we could get the staff in to do that and we could create the timeline to establish some public forums, we really needed to go in fall," added Friesen.

As a result, the public forums are expected to happen in September with a new vote date scheduled for October 14, 2020.