The town of Smiths Falls, Ont. is undergoing an unusual industrial transformation, from milk chocolate manufacturer to medical marijuana producer.
When the Hershey chocolate factory in the town closed down in 2008, hundreds of jobs went with it. It was just one in a series of major plant closures in Smiths Falls, located about 70 kilometres south of Ottawa.
“We’ve lost a grand total of probably 1,700 jobs,” Smiths Falls Mayor Dennis Staples told Global News. “We’re nowhere close to recovering that number of jobs.”
Enter Tweed Inc. — the latest company to get its Health Canada licence to grow and sell medical marijuana when new regulations force home growers to uproot their personal production.
Effective March 31, personal-use production licences and designated-person production licences will expire and the only way people will be able to access medical marijuana will be through licenced producers, Health Canada stated on its website.
“I quickly saw this would be an ideal location,” Tweed Inc. CEO Chuck Rifici said of his tour of the shuttered plant last June.
“It’s something I’ve been looking at for several years, looking for an opportunity when the regulations may change,” he said. “I heard of Health Canada releasing regulations, or they were going to be released in late 2012. It was the right place at the right time.”
It was definitely the right time and just in the nick of time. The plant’s previous owner, Icon International Inc., had enquired about a permit to demolish the site.
He noted the factory was one of a few plants in the town of 9,000 people that hadn’t been repurposed and brought back to life.
Rifici said the market for medical marijuana has grown to 40,000 patients from just 500 a decade ago.
“I can foresee Canada growing to half a million patients in the next couple of years. That’s a lot of growth for ourselves and other competitors that will obtain a licence,” he said.
For those concerned about security, Rifici explained there will be security around the clock and cameras in place anywhere cannabis is present. As well, there is a 465 square-metre vault where all dried cannabis will be stored until it is shipped out.
The local police station also happens to be right across the street from the plant.
The mayor is welcoming the change. He said he’s “thrilled” about it. Staples said the town had long been hopeful the plant would be repurposed.
Tweed Inc. may not be bringing back all of the approximately 500 jobs that disappeared after the chocolate factory closed down. Right now there are 20 people working at the facility, but Rifici expects that to grow to 100 posts in the “next year or so.”
But Staples also has a more personal understanding of the importance of medical marijuana production.
He told Global News his brother used the drug to treat his pain as he was dying from colon cancer.
“It definitely did make a difference in my brother’s life,” Staples said. “I think my brother would be proud of my position on this.”
And as for his community, he said the response has been overwhelmingly positive. He added he only received two letters opposing the operation.
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