Dozens of jobs budding from marijuana plants
With the upcoming legalization of recreational marijuana next year, companies are looking to expand across Canada — including into Saskatchewan — where the province’s agricultural industry makes it enticing.
On Tuesday Canopy Growth Corp. announced it had acquired rTrees Producers Limited Inc. located in Yorkton and was looking to hire 40 to 50 employees. The next day Harvest One Cannabis Inc. went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange, also announcing its plans for a marijuana production facility in Lucky Lake, located roughly 200 kilometres northwest
of Regina.
Canopy Growth is based in Smith Falls, Ont. with operations in Germany, Brazil and Australia. The company’s expansion into Saskatchewan is only the first step of many it plans to take.
“We’re looking to expand across Canada and internationally as well. We’re looking at a whole bunch of different options,” said Jordan Sinclair, director of communications for Canopy Growth. “Really, for us, moving west was a priority and a lot of the time, it just comes down to finding the right partner.”
The partner mentioned is rTrees, a Saskatchewan-owned and operated marijuana production company.
The company was founded in 2013, when it bought the former dairy producers creamery in Yorkton — a 90,000-square-foot building.
The company also applied to Health Canada for its medical marijuana licence at that time.
The future plans for the Yorkton facility, which will operate under Canopy Growth’s subsidiary according to Grasslands, include finishing development of the building. It is expected to produce between 3,500 and 4,000 kilograms of dry cannabis annually. The facility also has additional land which would allow for up to a 300,000-squarefoot facility to be built in the future.
Harvest One’s facility in Lucky Lake has been owned by the company since 2014. Harvest One is a subsidiary of the Australian company, MMJ Phytotech Inc. The company was looking to expand and found a former potato storage facility in Lucky Lake it decided to buy.
“We have been right with our assumptions and of course there was a risk involved at the time, but now this is paying off,” said Andreas Gedeon, chief executive officer of Harvest One.
Like the Yorkton facility the Lucky Lake facility has space to expand. The current 62,000-squarefoot facility is located on 18 acres and is expected to produce around 10,000 kilograms of dry cannabis annually.
Gedeon said that Harvest One probably won’t open other locations in Saskatchewan. However, with marijuana being a perishable product, it is best to be located near the clients. As a result, Harvest One will be looking to expand into other provinces.
The facility will operate under the subsidiary of United Greeneries and is expected to be running by next summer. It will employ 30 people in full-time positions and another 30 in part-time positions. Harvest One plans to hire as many local people as possible for the jobs.
“We think this will be very favourable for us for setting up the long-term base and create longterm relationships with the communities and the population and consumers,” Gedeon said.
Both companies say that by hiring locally they will be able to take advantage of the province’s agricultural background and knowledge.