A former health minister now in the legal cannabis business says B.C. needs to seriously pick up the pace of licensing legal marijuana stores.
Terry Lake, Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility with the Hexo Corporation, says he is not buying a lack of cannabis supply as an excuse.
Lake says some prospective pot shop owners are hanging by a fiscal thread.
“B.C. is way behind in opening cannabis retail stores. In fact I know entrepreneurs in Kamloops who are paying $6000 or so a month on a lease and still waiting for the provincial government to okay their applications. I know even if they didn’t have a full supply of cannabis to sell they would still like to be selling some to address the costs they are incurring. I don’t buy that as an excuse for having more stores open in B.C.”
Lake says if supply is such an issue than why are other provinces approving cannabis stores by the bucket load?
“You look at other provinces and they have been open up retail stores more quickly. Here in Quebec We have got another tranche of stores opening up, and that is all government, but they will be opening up this summer. I don’t think blaming the supply is valid given in Calgary alone there are more retail cannabis shops that in B.C. and Ontario combined.”
Matter of fact Alberta’s cannabis sales last year exceeded B.C.’s by more than 100-million-dollars.
That said B.C.’s Public Safety minister is defending the slow pace of provincial cannabis license approvals and predicting things are going to pick up.
Mike Farnworth says local governments are approving retail licenses much more quickly.
But Farnworth is not backing down on taking the time it needs to ensure all licensees clear criminal record checks.
“It is time consuming but it also for a very good reason, which is to keep criminal elements out. In my mind it proves that, that aspect is working. Having said that I expect you are going to see more and more stores opening up in the coming months as local governments are approving them now at much higher rates than we have seen in the past.”
As for other provinces approving cannabis stores at a much faster rate Farnworth says B.C. is very different from other jurisdictions.
“It is quite similar to California where you have a very well established illegal market beforehand. It has always been recognized that going from the legalization of cannabis, going from an illegal market in this province to a legal market, was going to take time and it was going to be different from other provinces. Let me put it this way did anybody every hear of the term Alberta bud? No.”
The first private legal cannabis store in the province was approved in Kamloops but it took a six month wait.
City of Kamloops council has approved almost 20 other cannabis stores with only two receiving provincial approvals to date.
