First Nations businesses see potential in growing pot industry
Canada’s marijuana industry is expanding rapidly and some First Nations are looking to cash in on the emerging economic opportunities.
Phil Fontaine, an Indigenous politician turned marijuana executive, has spent the last year travelling the country and talking to First Nations about jobs, wealth and training opportunities the burgeoning marijuana business could bring.
“Everywhere we’ve been, it’s been the same reaction, interest, excitement. First Nations are speaking about possibilities and potential. So it’s been very encouraging,” said the former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
Marijuana businesses represent “tremendous potential” for First Nations, partly because communities are able to get in on the ground floor, instead of fighting to catch up years later as has traditionally been the case, Fontaine said.
“This is a unique opportunity. This sector is different than any other the Indigenous community has experienced. Everyone is starting off at the same point,” he said.
Fontaine is the CEO of Indigenous Roots, a medical marijuana company operated by and for First Nations across Canada. It is a joint venture with Cronos Group, a licensed medical-marijuana grower. Its profits will be split evenly between partner First Nations and Cronos.
Though recreational marijuana is set to become legal this summer, Indigenous Roots will focus on supplying prescription pot to First Nations communities, which Fontaine said have traditionally had lower access to the drug.
Plans are in the works to build an Indigenous Roots growing facility next to an existing Cronos facility in Armstrong, B.C., with the aim of serving patients by the end of 2018, Cronos CEO Mike Gorenstein said.