Province outlines its plan for cannibas sales

Justice minister admits black market will not be eliminated

At a news conference with N.S. Justice Minister Mark Furey last Tuesday, NSLC president and CEO Bret Mitchell said the corporation does not see it as a profit-generating venture for at least several years.

“Ultimately, what’s going to matter is the cost of acquisition of the actual product itself,” Mitchell said.

He expects the NSLC will have to sell it for less than $10 a gram to be competitive.

Furey acknowledged the issue without saying outright whether the province will be subsidizing the product.

“We’ve said from the outset there are going to be significant costs to the provincial government to implement the legalization of recreational cannabis,” Furey said. “Some are of the view that there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but we don’t see that. This is imposing significant costs on provincial governments to transition to this legal market.”

Households will also be permitted to grow up to four plants for their own use and the NSLC will also facilitate online orders with home delivery.

Furey said there may be a possibility of more locations in the fu- Justice Minister Mark Furey and Bret Mitchell, president and CEO of the NSLC, answer questions from the media at One Government Place last Tuesday afternoon. The province announced the nine NSLC locations which will sell cannabis. ture but the province will need to study the data from store sales over the first 12 months before making that decision.

“I don’t believe that we would ever be able to provide a retail model in every community, so communities will look to other options and we believe that the online home delivery will be a key piece of that,” Furey said. “And there’s no doubt in my mind that people will take advantage of the ability to grow up to four plants at home.”

MUCH OF PROVINCE LEFT OUT

The locations leave wide swaths of the province without service by a physical store. There are none in the Annapolis Valley, the South Shore or the Strait region.

“We’re looking at this as a point of access, recognizing there are gaps in the map,” Furey said. “We also believe that the alternate options of purchase are reasonable and will afford those Nova Scotians who choose to consume, an opportunity to access product.”

Furey said the locations chosen were picked because of the size of the outlets. There was space available to easily modify the infrastructure needed in the stores.

The Clyde Street store in Halifax, a former NSLC outlet, will be entirely devoted to cannabis sales.

“It’s a great location,” Mitchell said. “It’s near lots of traffic patterns and it’s a location that we think we can retrofit to be able to handle as much of the large transactions that we are expecting to be downtown in the HRM.”

NO DISPLAYS OF PRODUCT

The NSLC CEO said that in the stores that sell both, an area inside the store will be set up for canna- bis purchases. It will be enclosed to limit access to those aged 19 and over and will not have product on display. Sales will be facilitated by a staff member.

“The product has to be handsold,” he said. “There will be no product out on open display that people can actually just pick up and walk up to a cash register. It will all be behind the counter and has to be hand-sold.”

As far as the full product selection that will be sold, some is still to be determined. Nor have suppliers been finalized.

“I don’t think there’s going to be a supply problem as much as people think there is,” Mitchell said. “And if there is one, it’s going to be a very short-term supply problem.

Pot buyers will not be able to collect Air Miles on cannabis purchases because the NSLC is not allowed to promote the product.

Prices will vary depending on the variety of product the customer buys.

To make room for the cannabis sales, the NSLC is removing home wine-bottling from its business model.

BLACK MARKET WILL CONTINUE

Karla MacFarlane, interim leader of the Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Party, said the gaps in physical store service will keep the door open for criminals to remain active.

“Obviously, this is a great indication that we are going to see the fostering of the black market continue,” MacFarlane said. “I’m sure that many people throughout Nova Scotia are questioning what was the data behind determining why these nine locations.

“Sounds like it was actually about money. As I stated before, I think this all comes down to the dollar and that’s what the disappointment is here again today. I find that we haven’t focused at all around the safety and health and preven- tion of legalizing (cannabis). We obviously heard from the minister and Mr. Mitchell that they even feel rushed by Ottawa,” she said.

Furey admitted the black market will not be eliminated by this process.

“The black market will continue to exist,” Furey said. “I’ve said in the past that this is progressive and there’s a number of factors that are going to determine the transition from the illicit product to a legal recreation product.

“The price point is going to be important. The anonymity. … These are factors that we don’t know how they will impact retail sales.”

Furey said the goals continue to be public safety and the ability to transition to a legal recreational market.

“That will always be a challenge,” Furey said.

The details of online sales and home delivery have not been finalized yet. Neither has the federal regulations on packaging, labelling and tracking.

“What we recognize, given the gaps in geography, is that to address those gaps it would be necessary to have that home delivery model and the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation will continue to frame that and determine what it looks like.”

Mitchell said it is a big challenge for the NSLC.

“We’re renovating nine stores in four-and-a-half months. It’s a huge job. We’ve never done it before. We understand the commitment for the province is to be ready for July and so that’s our intention.”

The budget is still being determined, too.

NDP Justice critic Claudia Chender released a statement via email and said the government’s approach still leaves a lot of questions unanswered.

“We’re less than six months from legal cannabis, the Liberals should have a better handle on our approach,” the statement said.