Image Credit: CFJC Today / Chad Klassen

By Jill Sperling

LICENSING DELAYS

Local business owner grows impatient with provincial approval process for cannabis stores

May 2, 2019 | 4:18 PM

KAMLOOPS — It’s been nearly seven months since recreational cannabis was legalized across Canada.

Kamloops was the first community in the province to open up a government owned Cannabis store, and would-be private business owners were quick to jump on board the legal pot train.

Despite numerous private applications within the city, only one has received government approval to operate in Kamloops.

Others have been waiting months with no indication of when and if they will be able to open up shop.

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Sherry Indelicato has been waiting five months to hear from the provincial government about her application for a recreational cannabis shop.

“Honestly, if I could say, ‘I’m done’ right now, I would,” she said. “I’m that frustrated, I’m that done with it, but I’m too far in now I can’t back out at this point.”

Image Credit: CFJC Today / Chad Klassen

Indelicato submitted an application for her business, Blossoming Buds Cannabis Incorporated, to the city of Kamloops in October of 2018 and received unanimous approval from council in early December.

Since then, she says there has been a notable silence from the province.

“They don’t answer emails, they politely ignore you, they have no answers to give you, and they just tell you at this point they can’t answer as to how long it’s going to be or where you are in the process,” Indelicato said.

B.C.’s Attorney General David Eby admits the process to approve applications has been slow, telling CFJC’s Balance of Power the province is conducting extensive background checks as the country works to transition from a black market to a legal one.

“We will not have money laundering, we will not have organized crime participating in this and if that means we’re a little bit slower my apologies to these people who are waiting because I know it must be very frustrating, but the government has made a decision that we will do comprehensive background checks and it does take time,” Eby said.

The Cannabiz Shop on Tranquille is currently the only legal private cannabis store operating in Kamloops.

The city issued its approval of that license last October, on the same day as the license for Fiore Fresco, another business waiting for provincial approval.

Meanwhile, a hiring fair was held this week for BC Cannabis Stores.

“I see that they’re taking job applications for the government store down on Lansdowne, where me and the fellow that’s opening up Eden should be next in line for a business license,” Indelicato said.

Image Credit: CFJC Today, Chad Klassen

Eby says the government stores are not jumping the line.

“We have 19 private stores in place in the province, we have one government store, there are more private licenses coming in the coming weeks,” Eby said. “The ratio will be somewhere around probably about 40 to one. So I think it would be an unfair description of what’s happening to suggest that the government stores are moving ahead of the private stores here in British Columbia.”

For now, business owners will have little option but to keep waiting and hoping they don’t run out of money before their stores are permitted to open.