Province processing 186 applications
Some private cannabis stores close pending approval, for others it’s business as usual
A day after marijuana use technically became legal in Canada, some cannabis stores closed until they get government-approval, weeks from now, while other retailers continued openly selling in their unlicensed stores.
“Hello, we’re open today for our regular hours,” is how a staffer answered the phone at Canna Clinic on Commercial Drive on Thursday.
He, like most others at unlicensed shops, wouldn’t be quoted on why the store remained open without a provincial licence.
But Tessa Snevy at Cannabis Culture on Davie Street said the shop was open to serve its customers who couldn’t or didn’t want to shop at the B.C.’s only licensed store, in Kamloops.
She said the Davie Street shop would stay open until “someone comes along basically and shuts us down and tells us not to.”
The legal route to opening a cannabis store is complicated.
Some 186 operators have applied to the province for a provincial licence, and submitted the $7,500 fee, according to B.C.’s liquor and cannabis regulation branch.
There are 35 applications in the Greater Vancouver/Sunshine Coast, 13 in Surrey/ Fraser Valley, 43 for Vancouver Island/Powell River/Gulf Islands, 78 in the Interior and North and 17 in an unspecified location.
In the city of Vancouver, eight of the applications for provincial licences have been approved, say the city’s chief licence inspector, Kathryn Holm.
Holm said it’s uncertain how long it would take for those stores to open, but it will be several weeks even though six out of the eight approved already have city development permits, a required step to opening in the city.
The city approves land use with development permits and issues the necessary business licence, while the province’s liquor and cannabis branch carries out a “financial integrity assessment” and “security screening” to ensure the applicant is a suitable operator and has no criminal connections, Holm said.
Vancouver has so far issued 53 development permits, meaning that 53 retailers have approval for the location of their shops. There is geographically room for 10 to 15 more, Holm noted.
“Six of those 53 have got their provincial licences, which is the right next step, and we’re really happy and encouraged by that,” said Holm. Four of those shops have posted signs requesting public input from residents, another mandatory step toward becoming a legal seller.
One of those shops is the UEMCannabis shop on Renfrew Street in Vancouver.
It has the sign in front of the shop and it closed down on Tuesday, sending out a tweet that said it would reopen after it got approval.
Those that don’t shut down, and continue to sell without a licence from the province and a development permit and business licence from a municipality, risk raids or fines.
Holm said it will be up to the province not the city to ensure stores have the proper provincial permit.
The province has set up what it calls the community safety unit, an arm of the Public Safety Ministry, with its own enforcement officers to police compliance.
Police could shut down pot shops without legal permits or merchandise — as RCMP did in Port Alberni on Wednesday — but Vancouver police Const. Jason Doucette said in an email on Thursday “there are no plans for the VPD to be driving around closing dispensaries at this time.”
He said that would be up to “municipalities and partner agencies” to ensure stores are licensed and legal.
“It’s still too early for us to know exactly how that’s going to look here in Vancouver,” he said.