Construction to start on cannabis plant
Bring your pets to True Leaf on Friday for groundbreaking event
Construction will start Friday on a 25,000-square-foot medical marijuana facility in Lumby.
Vernon-based True Leaf, which bills itself as the quality-of-life cannabis company for people and their pets, is hosting an official ground-breaking ceremony at the site noon to 1:30 p.m.
The people and pets line is used because True Leaf wants to get into the growing and processing of medicinal marijuana, in addition to the portfolio of True Hemp pet supplements it has in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.
As such, the ground-breaking ceremony is pet-friendly. True Leaf just asks your dog is well behaved and on a leash at all times.
The main building, expected to be completed by the end of the summer, will consist of 16,000 square feet for hydroponic growing and 9,000 square feet for laboratories, extraction and processing.
The first crop is expected to be grown in the fall.
True Leaf has been granted approval by Health Canada to build its facility. However, it does not yet have a licence to produce cannabis.
True Leaf hopes to get permission for cultivation, manufacture and distribution of cannabis products following a Health Canada security inspection when construction is complete.
Marijuana is legal for those with a prescription and the federal government is working on legalizing pot for recreational use by August.
True Leaf stock is publicly traded and on Friday closed at 89 cents.
Over the past year it has been as high at $1.90 and as low as 21 cents.
True Leaf founder and CEO Darcy Bomford and Lumby Mayor Kevin Acton have both touted the marijuana facility as an economic saviour for the struggling logging community of 1,700 in the northeast Okanagan.
Former NDP Premier Mike Harcourt is the chairman of True Leaf. All three men will be at the ground-breaking event Friday.