‘VERY READY’ FOR LEGAL POT
Secret warehouse housing stock
EDMONTON An Alberta warehouse in a secret location has started to stockpile cannabis ahead of legalization on Oct. 17.
Alain Maisonneuve, president and CEO of the recently renamed Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission, said Wednesday the government agency is “very ready ” to supply consumers with online sales via its website, AlbertaCannabis.org.
Finance Minister Joe Ceci went one step further, declaring Alberta is “the most ready province in the entire country.”
The AGLC has been working for months to prepare staff and inspectors for the change.
It has also started buying an assortment of products from 15 licensed producers, but Maisonneuve acknowledged the AGLC must remain flexible.
“We don’t know on Day 1 which products will be the more popular ones, which will be the less popular ones, so we’re going to have to work with licensed producers and our warehouse operations to make sure we can change our product assortment as we go along,” he said.
As much as the AGLC has been trying to iron out kinks and foresee possible problems for Oct. 17, there are challenges.
Not only is it dabbling in consumer-direct sales for the first time, it’s also dealing with the complications of an entirely new product.
“There will be hurdles, there will be things we don’t anticipate,” Maisonneuve said.
The government agency developed its plan of attack through a series of consultations and by looking at the experiences of U.S. states that have legalized cannabis. It is also working closely with municipalities.
The one-month countdown comes as the AGLC celebrates 25 years of privatized liquor sales in Alberta.
Maisonneuve said the lessons it has learned in that time have been invaluable in rolling out the new process for cannabis.
The subject of where cannabis will be stored was a natural one for Maisonneuve and Ceci as the two answered questions at the unveiling of the new AGLC liquor distribution centre in St. Albert Wednesday.
For now the warehouse sits empty, a behemoth hangar-like construction on the outskirts of the Edmonton-area community, its towering blue and orange shelves devoid of alcohol.
Come the new year, it will be the hub for all fast-moving booze distributed in the province and elsewhere.
With 470,000 square feet dedicated solely to warehouse space, it’s the largest AGLC centre in the province.
It has increased AGLC’s liquor distribution system to a combined 1.2 million square feet in storage space, with an estimated five million case storage capacity.
The existing AGLC warehouse in St. Albert will be converted to house slow-moving products, and product storage in the multitude of smaller warehouses AGLC currently uses will be consolidated into the new space.
Despite all the space, the new warehouse won’t store cannabis. Ceci says that product will be held in a “private, secret location” that government won’t be sharing with the public.