Alberta Gaming Liquor & Cannabis, the agency that regulates cannabis in the province, expects to license about 250 stores over the coming year. But only 17 are expected to be open for business on Oct. 17.
Six of those stores are in Edmonton, three are in Medicine Hat, and two are in Calgary.
Daniel Nguyen, owner of Numo Cannabis in Edmonton, told GlobalNews.ca that he expects to open on Oct. 17. “I do feel very lucky that we were able to go through every hoop, meet all the requirements and are able to open on Oct. 17,” he told reporter Caley Ramsay. “Lots of sleepless nights. We’ve been working at this for almost a year now. We applied back in early February and we’ve been doing work ever since then.”
Alberta has so far been the most wide-open province when it comes to encouraging free enterprise and competition in the cannabis sector. As Jason Markusoff noted in Macleans last month:
The free-enterprise and oil-loving province has been by far the most active in approving marijuana retail. It’s eschewed government-run stores and has placed no cap on the number of private outlets, expecting 250 in the first year and twice as many later. In the first six months, cannabis chains and entrepreneurs applied to the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission for more than 750 store licences.
For full information about Alberta’s cannabis rules and regs, check out Leafly’s full Alberta Cannabis Guide.
