Pubdate: Wed, 08 Apr 2015
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2015 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Mike Hager
Page: S1

POT A BOON FOR NANAIMO: REPORT

Economic Development Corporation Says Medical Marijuana Operation 
City's Sixth-Biggest Employer

At a time when municipalities across Canada were fighting to restrict 
industrial-scale medical marijuana producers, Nanaimo did the 
opposite and has concluded in a new report the business has been good 
for both workers and city coffers.

The Vancouver Island city began courting U.S.-based cannabis 
conglomerate Privateer Holdings in early 2013 as its Canadian 
subsidiary, Tilray, was aspiring to win a licence under the system 
the Conservative federal government would roll out a year later. 
Tilray first started selling its product in April last year and its 
facility now grows cannabis at roughly 90 per cent of its full 
capacity, and says it is mailing to about 4,000 clients, more than a 
third of whom reside in Ontario.

Now, a report by the city's economic development corporation has 
found the venture is the city's sixth-biggest employer and has paid 
$130,000 in property taxes during the first nine months of operation.

The report to be released Wednesday, commissioned by the city-owned 
Nanaimo Economic Development Corp. (NEDC), states that Tilray has 140 
full-time workers. That is considerably less than cable company 
Shaw's 400 employees and a pair of sawmills that employ several 
hundred people, but only 14 employees fewer than the No. 4 employer, 
grocery chain Sobeys.

Tilray is now working with the city toward expanding its grow site in 
the Duke Point industrial area to almost five times its current size. 
Once running at full capacity, it would become one of Canada's 
biggest licensed production facilities. Sasha Angus, chief executive 
officer of the NEDC, said Tuesday that back in 2013 city officials 
were impressed during an initial meeting with the leadership team at 
Privateer, which owns the online marijuana information resource 
Leafly, nascent American medical marijuana producer Marley Natural and Tilray.

"I know in other communities, sometimes zoning and those sorts of 
processes can be not very transparent and they can be long and 
arduous," Mr. Angus said.

Towns such as MacTier, Ont., have turned down licensed production 
facilities, while municipalities such as Delta, B.C., have fought to 
keep them on industrially zoned land and away from residential areas 
or the Agricultural Land Reserve. The Nanaimo facility will bring in 
$220,000 in property taxes this year, the NEDC report stated.

Greg Engel, Tilray's CEO, said the company hopes to sell 140 
kilograms of marijuana to consumers in April. In February this year, 
Tilray and 16 other licensed producers sold 291 kilograms, according 
to the latest data available from Health Canada.

Mr. Angus said the median income of Tilray's 140 employees is "just 
over $30,000," which is slightly higher than the city's median income 
of $27,840, according to the 2010 census. The median salary is buoyed 
by the company's scientists, horticulturists and former police 
officers in charge of its security system, but many employees are 
paid lower wages for tasks on the production side, such as cutting 
leaves and preparing product for mailing.

Medical marijuana patients are now in Federal Court fighting to grow 
their own at home, but Mr. Engel said the prospects for his sector 
look bright and his company will soon apply to greatly increase the 
number of plants they're licensed to produce.

"There's always going to be a percentage of the population that's 
going to look for medical cannabis that's been tested and gone 
through rigorous quality control procedures ... and that's going to 
be critical to supply the market with that product, which we do," Mr. 
Engel said.

In the past, Health Canada has projected that the number of patients 
seeking medical marijuana will jump from the current amount of 17,046 
to 400,000 in a decade.

Patrick Smith, a Simon Fraser University professor specializing in 
municipal issues, said Nanaimo might be at the forefront in B.C. of 
accruing benefits while managing the blowback of hosting a nascent 
industry that is still stigmatized in the eyes of some citizens.

"As we go through another recessionary period with more down- and 
offloading on to municipalities and less money for all kinds of 
things ... there's lots of rationale for looking around to where you 
might find some extra sources of money," Prof. Smith said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom