What everyone thought would be a heated debate on retail-pot in Essex and Kingsville wound up being a rubber-stamp for opting-in.
Both municipalities unanimously voted in favour of joining Leamington as the only regions in Essex County to say yes to shopfront sales.
Essex Councillor Steven Bjorkman floated the idea of getting more information back in October of 2018, and since then the people have spoken to the tune of 80% of the1,200 people surveyed in favour of the move.
"We've had a number of communities in Essex County that came right out of the shoot and said no, we're opting-out, it was just cut and dry," he says. "We really did take it too our residents. We really did put the time in and say what can we do here to get ahead of this legislation and make sure that we're prepared?"
The Ward 3 councillor tells AM800 News there's an advantage to jumping in despite not qualifying for a licenced store for at least a year.
"We're already on the opt-in side, we've already got a voice at the table as opposed to opting-out and just waiting for somebody else to make the rules," added Bjorkman.
Mayor Nelson Santos told AM800 News he expected to see some debate Monday night, but like Essex, councillors took turns admitting they'd changed their tune on opting-in.
Councillor Tony Gaffan says everyone did the research and just couldn't find a reason to leave tax-dollars on the table and wait around to see what happens.
"The fear that I was starting to have listening to my customers at the barbershop and constituents, I couldn't find anything that was valid enough to make me say opt-out when it's going to happen eventually and it's very important for us to have an opportunity to get some tax dollars when it doesn't come down very often" he says.
Gaffan says already having the industry in place and so much time to figure things out due to Kingsville's small population made it hard to say no.
"I couldn't find any cons on why not to have it if we're already allowing people to grow it in their own back yards, as well as we're growing it our own greenhouses," says Gaffan.
Kingsville's survey results came in at 63% in favour of opting-in, according to Gaffan.
LaSalle, Lakeshore and Tecumseh have already opted-out.
Amherstburg and Windsor will vote Jan 21 - the deadline to opt-out is Jan. 22 or municipalities will automatically opt-in for retail pot sales.