One of many largest cities in Canada has put out the welcome mat for authorized hashish retailers.
The Metropolis Council of Mississauga, the sixth-largest metropolis by inhabitants in Canada and Ontario’s third-largest, voted Wednesday to permit authorized hashish retail shops to arrange store inside the metropolis.
The town, close to Toronto, had been amongst almost 70 municipalities in Ontario that prohibited regulated hashish shops after Canada legalized adult-use gross sales in late 2018.
Mississauga’s inhabitants of 721,599, in response to the federal 2016 census, is larger than most provincial capitals.
So bringing hashish gross sales underneath the watchful eye of regulators is anticipated to open the door to vital retail alternatives within the metropolis.
“Being Ontario’s third largest metropolis, the Mississauga market presents us with a profitable income and progress alternative for each Excessive Tide and our Canna Cabana model, given its measurement and scale,” Excessive Tide CEO Raj Grover mentioned in a press release.
Excessive Tide has 151 places throughout Canada, which the corporate says makes it the most important nonfranchised retailer within the nation.
“Right now’s vote is a victory for everybody who desires to drive out the sale of unlawful, untested and non-age-gated hashish inside Mississauga and paves the best way for brand new jobs and funding to return into the town.”
The town’s elected council had addressed the difficulty of the shop ban numerous occasions lately.
Omar Khan, chief communications and public affairs officer at Excessive Tide, mentioned he hopes Mississauga’s choice will encourage different municipal holdouts in Ontario to rethink their prohibitions.
“As Mississauga’s expertise reveals, the place authorized and controlled hashish gross sales are prohibited, unregulated, prison components will fill the void,” he mentioned.
Amongst cities with a inhabitants of greater than 50,000, the next opted out of Ontario’s authorized hashish retailer regulatory regime:
- Markham, 328,966.
- Vaughan, 306,233.
- Richmond Hill, 195,022.
- Oakville, 193,832.
- Whitby, 128,377.
- Newmarket, 84,224.
- Caledon, 66,502.
Excessive Tide trades as HITI on the Nasdaq and the TSX Enterprise Change.
