Today (December 17), the prime minister who promised to legalize marijuana was in the same room as the mayor who regulated pot shops. And so it was with some predictably one of the first questions put to Justin Trudeau and Gregor Robertson at a Vancouver City Hall press conference was about how the two of them envision recreational cannabis sales going legit.

Specifically, Trudeau was asked for his thoughts on the Vancouver model, where cannabis is sold in specialty marijuana dispensaries, and on recent suggestions that pot should instead be sold via liquor stores through that industry’s existing distribution channels.

Trudeau spoke in response for a while but never answered the question.

“We touched on this briefly,” he said about his meeting with Robertson. “And one of the things that I highlighted was—and I’ve done this many times in many different forums—the move to legalize, to control, to regulate marijuana, is based in a concern that it is too easy for our young people to access marijuana right now. That we have the highest rate of underage use of marijuana of any of 29 different developed countries, and that has to stop. We have to protect our kids. And at the same time, we have to remove a significant revenue stream from criminal organizations and street gangs. So that is the lens with which we approach the regulating and controlling of marijuana.”

Trudeau went on to get a little more specific about different roles the federal government, provinces, and municipalities would take during the legalization process.

“Obviously, the Criminal Code will need to be adjusted if we are going to control and regulate, and that is something that the federal government will do,” he said. “But when it comes to distribution, when it comes to selling and engaging, obviously the provinces and indeed the municipalities will have to be an integral part of that discussion.”

“We were expecting there to be different perspectives and different solutions put forward across the country by various municipalities and provinces,” Trudeau continued. “The challenge of getting this important initiative right is one of ensuring that we are broadly listening to partners, to folks from the medical marijuana industry, to municipal partners, to provinces, and, of course, drawing on best practices from around the world. That’s why we are ensuring that we are going to get this right. We are going to get this right in a way that suits Canadians broadly and specifically in communities, and why we are taking the time to weigh in properly and ensure that we are achieving our goals of protecting our young people, and removing the criminal profits from marijuana.”

Robertson similarly responded by reiterating comments on marijuana he’s made many times before.

“In Vancouver, we share those same goals, to make sure our kids are safer and that there is a smart way to manage this situation,” he said. “We’ve had to undertake regulation of the dispensaries because there was no thoughtful controls coming from Ottawa, historically. So it is a relief to hear the prime minister’s commitment along with the attorney general and minister of justice. They will be working on this partnership to ensure we have a smart and effective way to regulate marijuana. And as partners on the ground in cities, we will do our share, taking the learnings that we’ve had with the dispensaries here in Vancouver, but ensuring that we have a very thoughtful system going forward.”

After Trudeau concluded his visit to city hall, Robertson responded to a couple more questions about marijuana. Notably, he suggested Vancouver’s response to the proliferation of dispensaries was imperfect, explaining it took shape as a reaction to the previous Conservative government’s refusal to move on the issue.

“Our system is based on the lack of any rational federal policy or regulation on marijuana so it's been very difficult to manage at a local level,” Robertson said. “So we look forward to a new approach and regulations from Ottawa that we can partner with on the distribution side and we have a system that meets those objectives of ensuring our kids are safer and don't have the open access that is currently available and that the revenues actually benefit society rather than flowing to organized crime."

Trudeau’s December 17 visit to city hall saw him speak alongside Robertson on a number of issues in addition to marijuana. The Straight’s Craig Takeuchi was there and has more on their meeting.

With files from Craig Takeuchi.