Kieley Beaudry is relatively new to micro-cannabis, but so is the rest of Alberta.

Beaudry is the founder of Parkland Flower Inc., a micro-cultivation facility currently under construction in Parkland County west of Edmonton. She is also the president of the fledgling Alberta Cannabis Micro License Association (ACMLA).

After incorporating last November, Parkland Flower’s wholesaling licence is expected to be approved by Health Canada this month. The company also has plans to apply for a processing licence down the line.

With that, and licences for the ACMLA coming in, it’s a busy time for Beaudry on the eve of the second wave of legalization.

Founded this past June, the existence of the association, despite the relative nonexistence of licensed micro-cannabis producers and cultivators, speaks to the passion in the community, according to Beaudry. “The cannabis community, when it comes to home-growers, cultivators, things like that, it’s a pretty tight-knit group and we’ve all talked about an association, but nobody had taken the initiative,” she said. “There’s no one really speaking for the craft industry in Alberta.”

By pooling resources, micro-cultivators can increase their buying power / Photo: Анатолий Тушенцов / iStock / Getty Images Plus Анатолий Тушенцов / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Beaudry pulled together 12 cannabis industry experts and cultivators to populate the board, one of whom will become one of the first micro-cultivators in the province.

Micro-cannabis facilities are limited to 200 sq. ft. of production space, which obviously limits the yield produced. “So, the only way to improve your revenues is to reduce your costs, so that’s part of why I started the association,” said Beaudry. By pooling resources, micro-cultivators can increase their buying power, such as getting wholesale rates for the nutrients needed to grow cannabis.

Beaudry said it is difficult to predict how many members the association will grow to have. “When [Health Canada] said you have to have a fully built facility before you could even apply, that really scared a lot of people,” said Beaudry. “It’s pretty difficult for someone to build a $700,000 facility and not know if they’re going to get a licence. Good luck finding funding.”

Beaudry hopes the micro-licensees won’t be limited to just cultivators, citing a wide range of cannabis producers, from gummies to topicals.

The ACMLA’s endgame for Alberta is cannabis tourism, similar to the collection of Niagara wineries and wine tours that have become a popular tourist attraction for that region of southern Ontario. Beaudry cited the cannabis tours in Colorado that take visitors from production facilities to cannabis-themed restaurants.

“I’d love to say it’s going to happen in the next five years, but it’s so new,” she said. “There’s a great economic opportunity for tourism, and I think micro-cultivation can be a big part of that—the whole farm-to-table outlook.”