The Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC) announced Friday that it will open a new branch on Montreal’s South Shore next week as well as a series of new stores slated to open later this year.
“These new outlets will be a step closer to ensuring the presence of the SQDC throughout Quebec to lure black-market cannabis users to the legal market,” said the government-run agency in a statement.
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Recreational marijuana will be available at the new Brossard location on Ignace Street as of March 13. The SQDC said it will ease pressure on the popular Ste-Catherine Street branch in downtown Montreal.
The Brossard location will be the SQDC’s 13th store to open in Quebec since cannabis became legal across the country last October.
The Crown corporation has also signed leases for three other locations in Montreal, the Laurentians and the Montérégie.
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The new Montreal outlet will be located at 5240 Queen Mary Rd. in the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough. It is expected to open its doors in the summer, but the agency did not provide an exact date.
The SQDC also said that new stores planned for Granby and Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts will open by the end of the spring.
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In late February, the agency announced that branches would be open from Wednesday until Sunday.
The retail stores were initially open all week long, but the SQDC slashed operating hours last fall due to supply shortages.