KAWARTHA LAKES- Due to a “national shortage of product” the Province has announced changes to the licensing process for recreational retail cannabis stores in Ontario.
“It is the federal government’s responsibility to oversee cannabis production and to provide a viable alternative to the illegal market by ensuring there is sufficient supply to meet consumer demand. Yet, we continue to see severe supply shortages across the country in legal, licensed recreational cannabis stores.” says the Government.
Alberta stopped issuing any new retail cannabis licences after reportedly only receiving a portion of the stock it ordered from federally licensed producers, and in Quebec retail operating hours have been reduced to four days a week according to the Province. In addition, the shortage of supply has restricted online sales in many jurisdictions.
The Government of Ontario says officials have brought this to the federal government’s attention repeatedly. At a recent meeting of federal, provincial and territorial Finance Ministers in Ottawa, Minister Fedeli, along with Finance Ministers from several other provinces and territories, raised the issue of a severe shortage of supply across the country with Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau.
“Taking into consideration the required investments for a prospective Ontario private legal retailer, we cannot in good conscience issue an unlimited number of licences to businesses in the face of such shortages and the federal government’s failure to provide certainty around future supply.” said a press release from the Province.
Ontario will be taking steps to ensure that private cannabis retail stores open in phases. In the initial phase up to 25 licences will be issued so operators can open for business on April 1, 2019 and stay open.
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) will implement a lottery system to determine who is eligible for the initial licences to legally operate a store in Ontario. All interested parties will be able to submit an expression of interest form online to the AGCO from January 7 to January 9, 2019. The expressions of interest will be put into a lottery pool for a draw. The draw will be conducted on January 11, 2019, with the results to be posted on the AGCO’s website within 24 hours.
The Province says the lottery process will be overseen by a third-party fairness monitor to ensure equality and transparency in the treatment of the expressions of interest, as well as an appropriate distribution of stores in each region of the province, which is set out in the regulation.
The OCS is working with federally licensed producers to monitor the availability of supply. The lottery is supposed to be a temporary model for issuing private retail licences.
“We will continue to urge the federal government to take immediate action to ensure licensed producers ramp up production in order to meet the anticipated market demand for recreational cannabis.”
  photo credit: verchmarco Medical Marijuana with the word WEED from letters on cubes via photopin (license)
