Cannabis retailers meet with province over licence concerns

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This article was published 12/02/2024 (908 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Local cannabis retailers had the provincial government’s ear last week over concerns about licensing sales in convenience stores, gas stations and large retail chains.

Sport, Culture, Heritage and Tourism Minister Glen Simard, Manitoba’s minister responsible for liquor, lotteries, gaming and cannabis, met with representatives from the newly formed Retail Cannabis Council of Manitoba, who are lobbying for change to Manitoba’s controlled access licensing of cannabis.

Apart from the age-restricted cannabis stores that are proliferating in the province, Manitoba’s regulations also allow cannabis to be sold under a “controlled access” licence at stores that are open to everyone.

The retailers who met with the minister want to see guardrails put up to prevent large convenience store and gas station chains from selling cannabis, and to limit underage Manitobans’ exposure to the substance.

Members of the council, which is a new provincial chapter of the Retail Cannabis Council of Canada, want Manitoba to instead mirror regulations in Saskatchewan, which allows controlled access only in small communities with a population below 2,500.

Every other cannabis retailer has to operate in an age-restricted storefront.

Melanie Bekevich, owner of Mistik Cannabis Co., is vice-president of the Retail Cannabis Council of Manitoba. The group started informally about two years ago and was incorporated over the past few months.

“If the regulation isn’t addressed, we could be looking at a larger retail chain, like a 7-Eleven or a Circle K, looking at licensing all of their stores, so that would be very disruptive to existing… licence holders, and we would have much broader access in spaces where there are underage people,” Bekevich said.

She said she felt Simard and a representative from the justice minister’s office were “very receptive to ongoing consultation with the industry.”

Bekevich said the group made previous attempts to meet with the former Progressive Conservative government, but weren’t successful.

“That’s extremely significant to us to have the opportunity to sit down with the minister at this early stage in their mandate.”

Simard didn’t make any commitments.

“We listened to their concerns and will be working with a number of stakeholders to see what options the government has to improve the system,” his office wrote in a statement.

On Monday, Simard met with local cannabis advocate Steven Stairs, founder of a group called Cannabis Business Association of Manitoba. The group doesn’t have official members and Stairs isn’t an industry professional. He raised safety concerns about the requirement for opaque window coverings at cannabis shops, and about cracking down on the black market.

Stairs disagrees with changing the controlled access licence, arguing taking away convenience stores’ ability to legally sell cannabis could lead to more black-market sales.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca