Twelve applicants who were originally selected in the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario’s second lottery to apply for a cannabis store licence have been disqualified for not providing the proper documentation on time, according to information recently released by the regulator.
“If an applicant failed to meet the requirements, for example, of submitting the necessary materials on time and in order, then they would be disqualified,” Raymond Kahnert, the AGCO’s senior communications advisor, told Global News.
The deadline for those selected in the lottery to submit the necessary documents to apply for a retail cannabis store licence was 5 p.m. Wednesday, Kahnert said.
The draw for the AGCO’s second cannabis lottery took place earlier this month.
Among the disqualified applicants are three proposed locations in Innisfil that were steps away from each other and two proposed locations that were under the same address in Oshawa.
One applicant in Toronto that was selected in the lottery withdrew from the application process.
“The next individuals or corporations on the waiting list, in the case of the east region, would receive a letter inviting them to apply and to go through the very same process that the first 42 were invited to,” Kahnert added.
“That is to provide all the necessary information and payment of fees to commence their application and the beginning then of the full eligibility review for a licence.”
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Thirteen applicants on the lottery’s waitlists will replace those that were initially selected who were disqualified or who withdrew from the process, according to Kahnert.
“When people were selected from the allocation lottery, it simply meant they could apply. It didn’t mean they would get a licence,” Kahnert added.
While there were previously two proposed locations in Burlington, there are now four, two of which have the same proposed address. There are also now two proposed locations in London that have the same address.
“If there’s someone who remains on the selected list at a given address and someone else on that list is disqualified, and if then the next person on the waiting list has an address that is already on the selected list, then that person coming from the waiting list would certainly request a change of address location,” Kahnert said. “They have that right.”
The 13 applicants that were selected from the waitlists will now have to submit the necessary documentation to the AGCO.