Ann: Termination of Scheme Implementation Agreement, page-26

Local NewsCritics argue Ontario's slow pace on pot retail threatens local jobs, investmentsAuthor of the articleoug Schmidt • Windsor StarPublishing date: Nov 16 20191 day ago • 4 minute read "Clearly not enough." Aphria interim CEO and board chairman Irwin Simons is shown next to thousands of cannabis plants growing inside the greenhouses of Aphria One during a visit to the Leamington facility on Oct. 23, 2019. Photo by Dax MelmerThe Ford government’s policy of restricting the number of pot retail stores is costing Ontario hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues annually and is threatening hundreds of jobs in a nascent industry, critics say.“Ontario has pooched it so badly that it’s now threatening employment,” said Craig Wiggins, managing director ofTheCannalystsInc., a multimedia forum on the investment side of the cannabis industry.Comparing Ontario’s approach to the retail model rolled out in Alberta, the Tecumseh-based analyst said the province is on track to lose out on nearly a half-billion dollars in new economic activity in the first year since legalization. The estimate by TheCannalysts, which Wiggins describes as a “low-ball” figure, includes $75 million in provincial sales and excise tax revenues lost to provincial coffers.“We are not doing what we can to mine those brand new revenue streams — we are risking jobs and investments,” said Wiggins.His big concern is that Canada’s emerging cannabis production centre — in the Leamington and Kingsville agricultural greenhouse hub — could see multimillion-dollar investments slow and jobs disappear.“We’ll take it harder here than anywhere else, we’re gonna lose jobs in this region,” he said of Southwestern Ontario.Craig Wiggins, managing director of TheCannalysts Inc., shown at a cannabis conference in Leamington, Nov. 6, 2018. Doug SchmidtThe Cannabis Council of Canada echoes that in an open letter to Premier Doug Ford signed by the top executives from 10 of Canada’s biggest licensed producers, including Aphria CEO Irwin Simon.“Unfortunately, our ability to continue to invest and sustain the jobs that we have created is being severely challenged by the province’s current retail cannabis policy framework,” the letter states, adding that Ontario “is lagging far behind” other provinces.Quebec-based Hexo Corp., one of Canada’s biggest licensed producers, recently announced it was suspending its Niagara operations and laying off 200 workers. Wiggins describes Hexo as the “canary in the coal mine” and the layoffs as a sign of things to come if Ontario doesn’t ramp up its cannabis retail sector soon.According to Wiggins, Medicine Hat alone — an Albertan city of 63,000 — has half as many cannabis retail stores as the 24 outlets currently serving all of Ontario, with a population of over 14.5 million. There are currently about 300 retail pot stores in Alberta, while Ontario recently approved an additional 50 retail outlets expected to be operational by the new year.“That’s not enough,” said Cannabis Council board chairperson Megan McCrae. Cannabis, she said, “is bringing a lot of growth to local communities,” but Ontario’s slow rollout of retail outlets is affecting sales and that’s affecting an industry that is one the biggest providers of new jobs.McCrae, who is also Aphria Inc.’s vice-president of marketing, said her company alone is responsible for more than 1,000 direct jobs in the Town of Leamington. Ontario not only has more than triple the population of Alberta, but she said that, of the close to 250 Canadian licensed producers approved so far by Health Canada, 110 are in Ontario, so anything impacting jobs in the cannabis sector will impact this province the most.Here’s the thing — cannabis is being sold, it’s just illegalThe Ford government blames Ottawa and the federal Liberal government’s “failure” in having “rushed to legalize cannabis without bothering to ensure there was enough legal supply,” Jenessa Crognali, spokesperson for Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey, said in an email to the Windsor Star.While that might have been an issue at the start of legalization a year ago, Wiggins said it’s “a fallacy the Ford government keeps saying,” and that any shortage in supply was rectified within months. “If that (a pot shortage) was the case, how do you explain Alberta?”Said McCrae: “Supply is absolutely not an issue now.”Crognali said the government is currently working with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario and the Ontario Cannabis Store “to return to our original plan to allocate retail store licences based on market demand.” The OCS is currently the province’s only, but money-losing, legal retailer of recreational marijuana.That retail store plan, similar to Alberta’s, is expected to start rolling out next summer. In a recent interview, Aphria’s Simon told the Star he expects Ontario will eventually host about 1,000 cannabis retail outlets.The company became Canada’s third-largest pot producer at the end of October when Health Canada issued a long-awaited cultivation licence for Aphria Diamond, a massive 1.3-million-square-foot expansion that will see Leamington’s largest employer capable of producing 255,000 kilograms of cannabis annually.In its fall fiscal update last week, the Ford government announced that it will also allow licensed producers to have retail stores on each of their production sites. McCrae said it would be like local craft brewers being able to sell their own beer on-site.A number of Canada’s biggest licensed producers have reported poor earning performances in recent days, including Canopy Growth on Thursday, with CEO Mark Zekulin pointing to one reason: “There are not enough stores.”'Liquid gold' — Leamington's Aphria starts rolling out cannabis vape productsAphria 'drama' now in the past, says interim CEOWiggins said proposed cannabis greenhouse investments worth tens of millions of dollars in Essex County — and with them hundreds of new jobs — are at stake.Said the pot executives in their letter to Ford: “Unless the government facilitates the continued success of the sector by allowing an increased retail footprint, continuing these investments will simply be unsustainable.”Meanwhile, the black market appears to be booming since Canada legalized the adult possession of pot.“Here’s the thing — cannabis is being sold, it’s just illegal,” said [email protected] twitter.com/schmidtcity Rows of cannabis plants are pictured at the Aphria One facility in Leamington on Oct. 25, 2019. The company’s even larger Aphria Diamond site, also in Leamington, has just been issued a cultivation licence from Health Canada. Dax Melmer

This is a copy from the Windsor Star here where I am. Even though the Federal government OKed the sale of Cannabis, the rules and regulations for rolling it out are completely out of whack with any well place and thought out infrastructure. There is going to be job losses because of over production Illegal sales and a f*ed up government that does not know what it wants. This ALL is going to draw down on the stock price and until things reverse will not get better. A lot of the big pot companies are now just fractions of their highs because now it is time to show PROFiTS and stop with the POTENTIAL.