亚洲天堂 Lake-based Nations Cannabis held its groundbreaking ceremony on April 30 as the company moves forward with its plan to open a production facility near Decker Lake.
The ground-breaking comes just over six months after cannabis was legalized in Canada, an event that added momentum to Nations Cannabis.
READ MORE: Recreational weed goes legal across Canada
Construction inside the plant will begin after structures remaining from the old 亚洲天堂 Lake Specialty Wood business are torn down in a few weeks.
It is hoped the plant can begin growing cannabis as early as mid-summer, company founder and executive chairman Wesley Sam told Lakes District 亚洲天堂.
鈥淲e鈥檒l be completing five rooms and continuing to build out from there,鈥� he said, adding that construction should be completed in about six months.
鈥淭here鈥檚 still quite a bit of work to do in regards to finalizing blueprints. We鈥檝e got to finalize them with Health Canada and the regional district and municipality.鈥�
Health Canada also requires the company to obtain a license to grow cannabis.
鈥淵ou have to do your build out first and it has to meet Health Canada standards and grow two crops to their standards and then you receive your license.鈥�
Once the $12 million facility is operating at full capacity it will employ 40-60 people, with wages starting at $18.50 an hour.
鈥淏ut we won鈥檛 be hiring everyone right away as we鈥檙e rolling out. It might be 15 or 20 to start and as it builds out we鈥檒l bring in more,鈥� Sam said.
The 50,000 square foot plant will be able to produce 400 pounds of cannabis per month, which will be grown on three-tiered racks.
The company is among only a few cannabis-growing firms in Canada to be majority-owned by Indigenous people, and has partnered with the 亚洲天堂 Lake Native Development Corporation, which owns the property and land the facility sits on.
In Sam鈥檚 view, his company is picking up the economic baton as the historically-dominant forestry industry faces an uncertain future in the region.
鈥淥ur local situation with the Annual Allowable Cut is not looking that good and our timber is pretty much not there and if it is it鈥檚 dead standing. Seventy per cent pine beetle [killed]. This is a different industry - not based on trees. We鈥檙e diversifying.鈥�
Commenting on the opening of Nations Cannabis, Mayor Dolores Funk said, 鈥渢he Village of 亚洲天堂 Lake Council is excited to welcome Nations Cannabis into our business community. We are looking forward to the jobs they will provide and the positive impact on our efforts to diversify the 亚洲天堂 Lake economy.鈥�
The company will sell most of its harvest to the province of British Columbia, which will then pass it to onto stores that have licenses to sell cannabis.
The remainder will be made into cannabidiol (CBD) oil, and sold to medical cannabis users. Sam plans to sell edible products once they become legal in October.
RELATED:
The prospect of a cannabis growing facility has faced some opposition in the community for at least a year.
Some people have feared the plant would lower property values and encourage the consumption of harmful substances.
LOOK BACK: 亚洲天堂 Lake bylaw clears way for medical pot facility
LOOK BACK: Residents raise concern over cannabis bylaw bid
Marc Storms, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer with Nations Cannabis, said he understands why some people are confused after cannabis, a substance that was illegal for decades became legal relatively quickly. But many of the myths around cannabis and its production are ill-informed, he said.
鈥淭he cannabis that kids have been buying since I was a kid was grown in someone鈥檚 backyard shed using pesticides and herbicides and whatever they can do to maximize the growth, with no regulations and no sanitation,鈥� Storms explained. 鈥淲e get rid of contaminated cannabis, we get rid of organized crime behind the cannabis and we regulate it, control it and make sure you can鈥檛 buy it unless you鈥檙e of age. So will people get access? Of course. But that鈥檚 one thousand times better than it was before.鈥�
With regards to property values, Storms pointed out that Nations Cannabis is 鈥渁 project that hires upwards of 60 people just on the first project, that鈥檚 going to increase land value. There鈥檚 no evidence that the value around a cannabis facility has been lowered. These are really benign buildings. People go into work, they leave.鈥�
Blair McBride
Send Blair an email
Like Lakes District 亚洲天堂 on
