CAPE BRETON CANNABIS
Richmond County production facility to be operational next year.
A Halifax-based company is encouraged its licence to cultivate medical marijuana crops in Richmond County will move ahead after it’s been thoroughly scrutinized by Health Canada.
Headland Cultivation Company plans to set up a cannabis production facility in Lennox Passage at the municipality’s light industrial park.
Lawyer-turned-pot-entrepreneur David Burton said he has a lengthy licensing process ahead of him, however he remains optimistic as his company met the criteria to move on to the detailed review stage to become a licensed medical cannabis producer.
“We’re looking toward the first quarter of next year before we’ll be up and running,” said Burton, the president and co-founder of Headland Cultivation Company.
The facility is expected to handle “hundreds of thousands” of marijuana plants a year, he said, and it calls for the 30-acre parcel of land to be built up over time through several phases of modular development.
He said his company is one of 12 companies currently at the detailed review stage in the licensing process.
Health Canada only issues licences once it has been determined all information submitted by a company is in compliance with the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes regulations and the facility has been built.
The detailed assessment and review includes in-depth security checks undertaken by the RCMP.
Due to the upswing in the number of companies looking for their piece of the industry — especially as recreational cannabis is legalized by the federal government later this year — the pace of the number of companies receiving approval to produce cannabis is increasing.
“Licensing is a lot different in 2018 than it was in 2015,” said Burton, who also has one eye on the recreational cannabis legislation that is expected to be passed into law by summer.
“Those who are fortunate to have production licences in the province now … faced a licensing authority that took years to go through applications. And that’s simply not the licensing authority that’s there any longer.
“Capacity has been drastically ramped up and rather than seeing four or five approvals a year, we’re seeing three or four a week.”
He said the process of receiving applications the federal government implemented in May 2017 has created a “favourable timeline” for his company to enter the cannabis market.
Burton, who operates the company alongside his mother, Ann Wilkie, said they were able to recruit a master cannabis grower from the Netherlands, and hired a head geneticist and senior vice-president of strategy, both from Ontario.
Sourcing the genetic material to produce a quality cannabis plant is key and can be an expensive and lengthy process as it must be obtained from other licensed producers, Burton said.
“Not all (licensed producers) make starting material available for their competitors, and obviously they’re not willing to give away the best genetics. They wouldn’t give that competitive advantage away and certainly they’re not giving it away cheaply.”
While addressed by Health Canada last week, the government has given no indication on whether it intends on loosening the rules of obtaining quality cannabis genes, he said.
With no experience in the industry himself, Burton said he’ll be leaning heavily on his expert team to find the “mother plants” to begin the production process.
That includes cloning cannabis from a mother plant, which is a considerably faster process than planting seedlings that take seven to 14 days to germinate.
But nothing can be done before a facility is in place. The Municipality of Richmond County and the Cape Breton Regional Enterprise Network, which is administered by the Cape Breton Partnership, assisted in promoting to Burton and Wilkie the benefits of setting up shop in the municipality.
Jeff Stanley, Richmond County economic development officer for the enterprise network, said the mother and son team had been looking at various properties in the Truro area, Halifax and in Cape Breton.
Three sites in Richmond County were pitched to Burton in a presentation by the Cape Breton Partnership in August.
Burton already had an affinity with Cape Breton as he travels with his girlfriend to visit her family in Sydney several times a year and Wilkie, a lawyer herself, had worked with engineers on the Sydney Tar Ponds cleanup.
He noted taking his business venture on a “municipal roadshow” was always about finding a community that would be looking to “champion” the project. “We basically spoke to this business as an opportunity for investment in business
attraction,” Stanley said. “We tried to show these folks that we wanted them here and that there was some value in them being here.”
The chosen site faces the bridge to Isle Madame. However scenic the area might be, there is no road, electrical, sewer or water line access to the municipally-owned property.
“That in itself is a great opportunity for the municipality because it can actually help develop some more lots en route to this location and expand the business park,” Stanley said.
He said Headland has an option to purchase the property.
The municipality and Headland would likely negotiate the cost of installing the required infrastructure, said Stanley.
“The municipality will be the beneficiary of some tax revenue from this facility so I’m sure the municipality will look at the projected tax revenue and the amount of services required and come up with a formula.
“There may be other funding partners sitting around the table that can help put something like this together.”
In the initial stages Burton expects to hire between 50 and 60 people to fill positions such as managers, department coordinators, greenhouse technicians, tradespeople and security staff.
“After we’re initially licensed we will seek to expand,” he said. “It’s going to be a 24-7 operation.”