Robinson's Cannabis building new facility to open Dec. 1.

A Kentville cannabis producer says a new partnership between his company and a national investment network will grow local economic benefits and jobs.

Andrew Robinson is the owner of Robinson’s Cannabis, the soon to be Kentville-based cannabis production facility newly acquired by Cannabis Wheaton’s, a network of investors that provides capital support to cannabis enterprises across Canada and is excited about this new partnership.

Robinson described how the partnership will take his budding company from a local enterprise to the national and global markets, saying this is “something our team is so excited about.”

'Welcome to the industry. It’s not going anywhere.' – Meris Kott, chief executive officer, Redfund Capital Corporation.

It’s a common story thread: women entrepreneurs blazing the way for cannabis, taking over the sector and inserting themselves into a market that is booming, complicated and fast-evolving.

Stop. Back it up. Wait a moment. This is not one of those stories.

It’s an easy – perhaps a bit lazy – trend to latch onto, one that weaves itself through the cannabis daily news cycle. “Women in weed: charting change for male-dominated cannabis culture,” blared a CBC headline earlier this year.

SAQ head Alain Brunet says clients will be able to buy behind-the-counter pot from extensively trained workers.

The head of Quebec's liquor board says even though there's still no official date for the legalization of cannabis, the SAQ will be ready to serve Quebecers in stores and online.

SAQ president and CEO Alain Brunet says the agency is in the process of figuring out where stores will be located —they can't be within 250 metres of an elementary or high school — and will soon be recruiting employees.

The SAQ will oversee the sale and distribution of marijuana, but the sales will be carried out by a separate entity: the Société Québécoise du Cannabis.

Several former executives from a Carleton Place cannabis firm are launching a new venture and hope to construct a 100,000-square-foot facility in west Ottawa and start cultivating marijuana by May 2019.

NordikLeaf CEO James Mackenzie says the firm has raised $1 million to date and is looking to raise a total of $25 million from high-net-worth individuals to launch the project. Additionally, the company has an agreement with “a large Canadian construction company” based in Ottawa that will help finance the building of the facility.

Growing high-value food crops in greenhouses is not a viable future in Canada anymore. That’s coming from the head of a company involved in converting greenhouse space in Delta to grow cannabis, while the city’s mayor expresses concerns about the change.

Michael DeGiglio, CEO of Village Farms, says his company continually lost money growing produce and jobs are in jeopardy without a change. So for him, it’s about survival.

He argues vegetable growers here just can’t compete with those in places like Mexico, where he points out much of our produce comes from.

A Toronto-based pot producer is taking over the former Maple Leaf Foods meat plant in Winnipeg.

GrowForce Holdings has announced it will open its flagship cannabis cultivation facility in the city’s St. Boniface Industrial Park.

It says the 11,000-square-metre facility will employ 150 to 200 people once it’s fully operational next year.

GrowForce CEO Rishi Gautam says the company looked at various cities, including Edmonton and Calgary, but settled on Winnipeg because of reasonable hydro rates and a large skilled workforce.

Gautam says the company purchased the site for about $10 million and plans to invest another $30 million to retrofit the building.

A major new marijuana cultivation business in Manitoba is being announced today, the Free Press has learned.

GrowForce Holdings Inc. will announce it is setting up a 120,000-square-foot facility in an old meat packing plant in Transcona.

The Toronto-based company is a newly created entity that last month announced the acquisition of WILL Cannabis Group in Brampton, Ont., an authorized licensed producer of cannabis for medical purposes through Health Canada.

A spokesman for the company said GrowForce will use that licence to add the Winnipeg production operation as a second facility. GrowForce has said publicly it plans to build a vertically integrated cannabis platform with cultivation, processing and retail facilities across Canada.

Olds area could see up to 1,000 jobs from 3 facilities.

Marijuana is already big business in Canada and some southern Alberta communities are lining up to fully take advantage of recreational cannabis legalization, which is just months away.

The Aurora Cannabis production facility is just a few kilometres down the road from Cremona, Alta. The village had a 2016 population of 444. This was the first facility to set up shop in the province after getting approval in February 2015 from Health Canada.

Penny Sterling, the quality assurance director at the facility, commutes about 40 minutes from nearby Olds, and she's one of about 120 current employees.

Canadian marijuana companies are on a hiring spree, looking to fill an array of roles as they gear up for the legalization of recreational cannabis later this year.

The workforce is booming, said Alison McMahon, who runs Cannabis At Work, a staffing agency focused on the burgeoning industry.

Right now, she's recruiting for positions in everything from growing and production to sales and marketing, all across the country.

I think that the people, at this point, who are looking at the industry and are excited really see the upside and the growth potential.

Recent quarterly results from Molson Coors Brewing Co. (TSX:TPX.A)(TSX:TPX.B)(NYSE:TAP) and Anheuser Busch Inbev NV (ADR) (NYSE:BUD) have indicated a continuation in the recent trend of a softer North American beer market. Is this indicative of a potential shift in changing consumer preferences and the more widespread adoption of recreational cannabis as a substitute for alcohol products? If so, what are the potential implications on the alcohol and marijuana markets? People are drinking less beer in North America First-quarter results out of two of North America’s largest alcohol beverage makers show an alarming trend in what appears to be a slowdown…