Senator visits cannabis campus
After months of reviewing legislation that will legalize marijuana by this summer, Sen. Peter Harder visited a campus preparing to teach people to grow the plant.
The Senate’s government representative was at Niagara College’s teaching greenhouse Friday morning for a tour of the facilities that will house the new commercial cannabis production program when its first students enroll in September.
Harder said the Senate has been debating Bill C- 45 since the end of November, “utilizing all of the expertise of the Senate to ensure a rigorous … sober second thought of review.”
He said the final reading is scheduled for late May or early June, with the final vote on the legislation scheduled for June 7.
From there, he said it will take from six to 12 weeks to implement depending on the jurisdiction.
“We have some assurance that the market will be active in the course of the summer,” he said.
By rolling out the first educational program of its type in Canada, Harder said Niagara College has positioned itself “at the forefront of assuring producers of quality employees who have the experience, the background, the expertise to have product assurance in the production.”
Meanwhile, Canada is also “leading the world in the development of a recreational cannabis market.”
“If you talk to some of the local producers – as I have – you find that they’re increasingly the calling card of Germany, Brazil or other markets that are shifting in their approach. Canada has the opportunity to be leaders in this important agricultural area. And where better than the Niagara peninsula for this innovation to take place?” said Harder, who grew up in Vineland.
Alan Unwin, associate dean of the college’s environmental and horticultural studies programs, said there is already a demand for graduates to work in the medicinal marijuana industry.
The demand for graduates should grow significantly when recreational marijuana is legalized.
“I only see an increased demand for highly skilled, well trained individuals going forward on an ongoing basis, if the industry emerges the way everybody is expecting it to,” he said.
“Human capital aspects to any emerging industry are critically important.”
So far, close to 300 people have applied for 24 post- graduate student places that will be available in the program’s first year.
Harder said he is “very supportive of the direction that the bill before the Senate now is contemplating” regarding the controlled production of recreational marijuana.
“At this point all cannabis production except for medical cannabis is of course in the hands of the criminals – organized crime,” he said. “What the government is proposing is to both have a controlled distribution of recreational cannabis to ensure quality and integrity of the product but also to ensure appropriate enforcement and control around the distribution and consumption of cannabis.” Unwin said the new program will also ensure the quality of the product being produced, eliminating problems such as fungus growing on plants - “primarily through bad and poor production in illegal facilities.”
“Where we can really excel is ensuring that those are minimized or eliminated through good practices, and certainly the labour force would be part of that,” Unwin said.