No marijuana store yet for Peterborough

Location announced for proposed Oshawa cannabis shop

Peterborough has yet to get one of the first legal marijuana stores in Ontario, even though city council voted to allow a private pot shop to open here.

The closest store may be in Oshawa, which is expected to be one of the first cities in the province to get a shop. The proposed store there hasn’t gotten final approval from the province — but that could happen soon. The Oshawa store would be called Fabulous Leaf; it’s proposed for a large commercial plaza on Laval Drive near Stevenson Road and Highway 401.

There’s also a Starbucks, Subway and Pita Pit in the plaza.

It’s one of just seven applications that are currently filed to the Ontario government for pot stores: there are two in Toronto, one in Brampton, one in London, one in Ottawa and one in St. Catharines.

Although Peterborough had been selected as a site for a government-run pot shop last year, that plan was scrapped. The previous Liberal government had planned to run pot shops across the province, but the Progressive Conservative government tossed out that plan soon after taking office.

Instead, the Ford government allowed private entrepreneurs to take part in a lottery — winners would then apply to operate a shop.

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario had nearly 17,000 interested entrepreneurs

across the province, of which 25 were chosen in the lottery in January to apply in different regions of Ontario.

Peterborough is part of the east Ontario region; Ottawa, Kingston and Barrie are also included in the area.

Just five entrepreneurs won the lottery to apply to run stores in this region: Brandon Long, Daniel Telio, Patterson and Lavoie, Pure Alpha Holdings and Karan Someshwar.

There were 11,084 lottery bids in the east Ontario region — and just five winners were allocated to the area. It’s unclear where these lottery winners live or plan to set up shop.

Recently the AGCO’s website has been updated to show the applications from lottery-winning entrepreneurs as they are filed.

The government is allowing the public to file objections or make written submissions about the applications.

With one application already filed for Ottawa — from Pure Alpha Holdings, for a store called Superette at 1306 Wellington St. W. Unit 100 — there are four more applications that could potentially be filed for east Ontario. Though it’s unclear whether one may be in Peterborough, despite being one of the few cities in the region that are large enough to qualify for a store in the first round of retail applications.

The AGCO’s website states applicants must be prepared to open their stores by April 1.

If there’s no store in Peterborough, customers looking to buy pot from a legal pot shop may also be able to do so in Toronto — there’s two applications filed there. A shop called Ameri is proposed for 20 Cumberland St., while The Hunny Pot Cannabis Co. is proposed for 202 Queen St. W.

Pot can also be purchased legally online.