Since lifting its November moratorium on new REC retailers weeks ago, Alberta moved quickly from licensing five new stores weekly to licensing 20. This week, Alberta hit 254 retailers province-wide, including 57 in Calgary, with its population of 1.3M.
- All 254 have received their licenses, though not all have opened.
- At the time of the moratorium, Alberta had 104 REC stores—more than any other province. Calgary already had 29—meaning more stores were available in Calgary in November than the 24 open across the entire province of Ontario today.
Alberta micro cultivators, however, complain they’re being shut out of the market and want to the right to offer farm-gate sales in order to compete with major LPs, who are required to sell their products to provincial wholesaler Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis.
Calgary Herald
- Micro growers say getting licensed is too hard and they want the regulations balanced to allow them to compete.
Quick Hits
- Saskatoon may cut the fee to renew REC retail licenses from $10,000 to $500.
Saskatoon Star-Phoenix - Repeating that the CAQ government’s goal is discouraging cannabis use, not the needs of businesses, a spokesperson for Quebec health minister Lionel Carmant dismissed industry demands that Quebec allow the same products that will be legal in the rest of Canada. “We need to protect the population, especially our children, from the repercussions of the legalization of cannabis,” the spokesperson told the Leaf.
The Leaf
