Ken Klassen has again taken to these pages to criticize the Hanover School Division board (“Our choice, our responsibility,” Oct. 8). But there is a fundamental problem with his argument.

A board’s purpose is to bring community perspectives to the table, debate them openly and work toward decisions on behalf of the people it represents. Deliberating and ultimately making decisions is how a board is supposed to function.

Mr. Klassen knows the governance structure of a school division better than most. He once occupied the superintendent’s chair himself.

The problem appears in the claim that this board is not transparent. That claim is false. The board does not arbitrarily and unilaterally set the agenda. The superintendent and board chair develop agendas together. Agendas and minutes are made available, and in-camera minutes are read aloud at public meetings.

Steinbach’s first-ever cannabis store won’t be arriving any time soon after proponents of the store were denied the right to hold a plebsicite.

A plebiscite vote can only happen around provincial elections, which are held once every four years, and require signatures of 20 percent of registered voters. Retailers TobaGrown and Flamingo Plus were denied permission to hold a plebiscite to ask if the community wanted a cannabis store or not, due to not meeting the criteria.

“Look at the last election, in Steinbach, our petition was three times as many as the people that showed up four years ago. That is a concern for the city councillors who are using their personal bias, the fact that cannabis has been illegal for most of their life,” TobaGrown Founder Jesse Lavoie said.

Lavoie said his petition had 4,000 plus signatures but only 900 signatures were accepted. He said the city rejected the majority of signatures over a rule that people must put their street numbers when they sign a petition.