If everything goes as planned, the medical marijuana facility Royal Canadian Cannabis could be in production as early as October 2019.
That is what Royal Canadian Cannabis chief executive officer Jake Burlet and chief financial officer Jason Theis said during a Barrhead Business Support Network (BSN) luncheon on Oct. 1 at the Charles Godberson Rotary Room in the Barrhead Agrena.
The BSN invited the representatives to talk about the company’s proposed $20 million, 44,000 square-foot medical marijuana growing facility in the County of Barrhead’s Kiel Industrial Park.
Burlet said initial employment opportunities at the facility would be limited to sub-trades.
“When we select our general contractor, part of that discussion will be to ensure that the local trades have an opportunity. The obvious ones being concrete, rebar along with basic infrastructure,” he said.
Once the facility is up and running, he said there will be further employment opportunities.
Theis noted they are in the process of searching for a master grower.
“That person will be instrumental in designing the facility, making sure we put in the right equipment, et cetera,” Theis said.
After that, the next step would be hiring a chief of security. “Security is a big thing under Health Canada regulations, so having the right person in charge of security will be key,” he said.
“From there, as we move towards production, that is when we will start hiring. In the initial stage, we believe that will be somewhere between 12 and 15 to start, and 25 to 30 people when we are in full production.”
The majority of these people will be local and that is why Royal Cannabis chose Barrhead.
“We see Barrhead as a location with a deep talent pool. As we get the facility built, the people we are going to require to staff and operate it, we fully expect will come from this community. It’s a young demographic, with lots of talent,” he said.
The other reasons why Royal Canadian Cannabis chose Barrhead for its proximity to Edmonton, as well as its reputation of being an innovative, agricultural community that has a track record of success.
“Not just from the town and county, but from a regional leadership point of view and an agriculture perspective of being willing to try new things and stick with it and see them through,” he said.
“It is also a good example of a municipality putting their money where their mouth is. [County of Barrhead] has proven to be proactive and reasonable to do business with.”
An audience member asked if the legalization of recreational cannabis will have any impact on the business.
Burlet said right from the start they always planned to produce a high-grade pharmaceutical product, and legalization will not change that.
“It is projected that by 2024, in Canada there will be 800,000 users of medical marijuana products . . . That is because there is a growing body of evidence of what the positive effects can be, not only from a holistic and philosophical point of view but a commercial,” he said.
“There are a growing number of European countries that cover the costs of medical cannabis and part of our business plan is to export our product to these countries.”
Burlet added he also believes there is the possibility to expand into the veterinary medicine field as there is growing interest in the use of cannabis in the treatment of animals.
It should be noted that although Royal Cannabis Holdings wants to get into the medical cannabis growing business, they are still waiting for approval from Health Canada.
Currently, Health Canada has approved about 118 Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMR) licences of which eight are in Alberta. Health Canada is in the process of going through about 2,000 (ACMR) applications.
