Company wants to turn Sunshine Coast into craft cannabis capital of Canada

B.C. Craft Supply Company from Squamish claims that marijuana industry on the Coast is already worth $250 million a year

(By News Desk)

B.C. Craft Supply Company from Squamish wants to turn craft cannabis from small growers on the Sunshine Coast into nationally known brands, creating business and employment. 

“It is already a massive industry here, worth about $250 million a year, but most of it is still illegal, and the Coast would greatly benefit if small growers became legal suppliers of government-licensed marijuana dispensaries,” Susan Chapelle, director of government relations of the BC Craft Supply Company, told a number of representatives of local government in Sechelt last week. 

“That $250-million figure was the elephant in the room,” said Mark Hiltz, Area F director for the Sunshine Coast Regional District. “Where did they get that number from?”

The estimate is from Bron Hogan, one of the founders of the BC Craft Supply Company, who started growing marijuana on Salt Spring Island 26 years ago. He knows the industry well and claims to know a lot of growers and brokers. There are an estimated 600 growers on the Coast. If the number is $250 million, the average yield would be a little more than $40,000 per year per grower. 

No other estimates of the size of the local cannabis industry are available. 

“I don’t have hard numbers, but in my personal opinion, cannabis is probably already the top industry on the Coast, considering the number of people involved. It would be a great boost for the regional economy if it is properly regulated so the money stays here,” Chris Hergesheimer, program manager for the Sunshine Coast Economic Development Organization (SCREDO), told The Coast Clarion this week. 

SCREDO works with local governments, chambers of commerce and other business partners to further sustainable growth on the Sunshine Coast. Hergesheimer made the remarks after Chapelle’s presentation. 

Most legislation has not considered small growers, only large licensed producers, Chapelle said. The federal and provincial governments benefit financially from cannabis sales through taxes, while local governments are left to foot the bill for bylaw enforcement, policing, building inspections and staff time. Therefore, municipalities tend to discourage marijuana production, especially on a small scale. 

“If local governments created zoning and regulations, small growers could stop producing in their houses, stealing power, using too much water,” Chapelle said. Also, compliance with regulations avoids mould issues resulting from production in homes.

However, a transition to legal production is difficult and expensive for small growers. Not every grower will have the skills, knowledge, and money to enter the legal market, Chapelle said, and BC Craft Supply Company wants to help them with labs and scientists for testing, mentoring by master growers, regulatory consultants for applications to councils, and distribution. The company wants to buy the product and sell it to the B.C. Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch, as well as promoting any craft brand the grower has already established.

Chapelle thinks that even if 10 per cent of the small growers would make the transition to legal production, more people would go to the government dispensaries because they tend to trust locally grown, organic and tested product. 

Health Canada and Statistics Canada estimate that even after legalization in October last year, 70 per cent of Canadian cannabis users still get their marijuana from the grey market, not government dispensaries. Eighteen per cent of Canadians use marijuana. 

If local governments support small-scale marijuana production, it would create a lot of new business and employment, Chapelle says: lights, electric systems, air-supply and ventilation systems, filters, software, lab staff for testing, plumbers, trimmers and pickers.  

She hopes the Sunshine Coast will become a centre of national and internationally known craft cannabis brands. British Columbia produces 37 per cent of all legal marijuana in Canada, a figure that is expected to grow after legalization of edibles and beverages in October this year. 

Hergesheimer of SCREDO also hopes more small growers will transition to legal production. “It is a huge industry already, so how do we capture the social, cultural and economic benefits?”

He thinks a lot of tourism and hospitality could evolve around craft cannabis: tasting lounges, B&Bs with special products, and ecotourism with organic marijuana as a selling feature. 

“We could have craft cannabis tours, just like craft beer, cider and wine tours. It seems like a smart strategy for moving ahead. Craft cannabis could attract a lot of people to the Coast. In a post-manufacturing and post-carbon era, we would be growing 100-per-cent organic plants,” Hergesheimer said. 

Last Wednesday, Health Canada announced that growers seeking to obtain a license to cultivate and process cannabis will henceforth have to show they have a fully built site ready to go before they can begin the application process. 

In the present system, people looking to become licensed marijuana producers had to merely secure a site before starting the approval process. 

The new system can be a bit of a concern for new growers entering the market, Chapelle admitted. Who will invest in a grow facility if there is no certainty about a permit? Also, the capital required to build cannot be from the illegal market: “It’s a bit of a regulatory hurdle.”

On the other hand, many growers already have facilities, and will just have to retrofit them to comply with Health Canada regulations, she said. “And the good thing is that with the new rules, the Health Canada approval process will likely be a lot faster.”