The only bank still willing to back Ontario’s REC retail lottery applicants is Alterna Savings, which required them to open an account and deposit $300,000. (BMO stopped accepting new applications in late July.) As of Tuesday, Alterna confirmed the bank has “exceeded the limit of applications that we can presently process, and will not accept further application for this AGCO allocation.” The Globe reported, “With nearly a week left before Ontario begins accepting submissions for its second cannabis retail lottery, the window to enter might already be effectively closed.”
Twitter, Globe and Mail.
- Ontario’s second round of REC retail licensing began on July 31 serving First Nations applicants on a first-come, first-served basis for eight licenses.
- The non-Native lottery portion of the next REC retail round, awarding 42 licenses, will begin with vetting of applicants between August 10 and 19, before the lottery itself on August 20.
- Lawyer Trina Fraser warned lottery entrants to get legal advice on their offers-to-lease, particularly if they’re about to agree to begin paying rent before October, when the new stores will be allowed to open.
Twitter—Trina Fraser - When the Doug Ford government canceled the previous Liberal government’s plan for a provincial monopoly REC retail system, it was left with at least $1M in contracts for construction and interior design of a single Ontario Cannabis Store in Guelph. The Ontario Cannabis Store would not comment on how much of the contracts were paid, or about how much of the ordered materials were delivered.
The Record
Quick Hits
- Citing need for refrigeration units, new display cabinets, and additional counters ahead of edibles and cannabeverages become legal, the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation has been given the provincial go-ahead to renovate its 11 cannabis-liquor stores and the one standalone cannabis store. When the stores were built last year, they were “for legalization in 2018” and did not anticipate products other than those legalized last October.
Global News
