All quiet on cannabis store front in Peterborough and City of Kawartha Lakes

The first 25 brick and mortar cannabis stores in Ontario are set to open April 1.

Peterborough and the City of Kawartha Lakes qualify for a store based on having a population of more than 50,000 people. Both communities have opted in to allow cannabis stores in the community.

But neither community has been selected by a licensee as of yet.

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“I haven’t heard anything recently, no,” said Peterborough mayor Diane Therrien.

“No, we haven’t heard anything yet,” said Cheri Davidson, manager of communications for the City of Kawartha Lakes. “As of our update Friday from the province, there are no successful applicants for the City of Kawartha Lakes.

The east region, which includes both communities, as well as Belleville, Kingston, Ottawa and Barrie, will have five of those stores.

So far, licencees have chosen Kingston and Ottawa.  Those applications are now undergoing the 15-day public notice period, where members of the public can file an objection or submission to the site through the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO).

That leaves three licences for four communities.

“As soon as there’s a successful applicant in our community, we’ll hear about it,” added Davidson.

“I know there were several people that were interested in opening a storefront or getting that process going,” said Therrien.  “So, I would assume it’s a bit more frustrating for them. We just have to wait and see.”

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One community in the east region will be left out of the first round of stores.

But, all of the communities have received money from the province.

The City of Kawartha Lakes has received two installments totaling $200,000.

The money is now in a reserve fund.

“When we have a retail location, we will assess how to use the funds to best roll out any policing, any education, any programming that needs to happen from there,” said Davidson.

“The timing of process completion is dependent on the submission of Retail Store Authorizations (RSAs) for the other three entities (which will then identify the community), our eligibility assessment process and the public notice process,” said Raymond Kahnert, spokesperson for the AGCO, in an emailed statement to Global Peterborough.

As of Friday afternoon, nine store applications were posted for public comment on the AGCO website.