There’s no need to try to persuade David Clement about there being two sets of rules for alcohol and cannabis. He’s already convinced. The North American affairs manager for the Consumer Choice Center doesn’t mince words. “There is a huge double standard between the two,” he tells The GrowthOp. 

Clement points to the measures that were taken to address the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on both industries (and the respective timing of government assistance) as an example of the glaring difference between how both are perceived and protected.

Ontario, the most populous out of Canada's 10 provinces, could potentially be the one most populated with marijuana dispensaries. According to data provided to Marijuana Business Daily by the province's Alcohol and Gaming Commission, it has received almost 900 applications for retail operator licenses (ROLs) since Jan. 6.

That was the date when the province abandoned its former lottery system of license granting for a completely open application process, in which any business could apply.

Cannabis retailers in Ottawa are breathing a sigh of relief after the provincial government reversed a decision that would have forced private pot shops to completely shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On April 3, Premier Doug Ford expanded the province's list of non-essential business to include cannabis stores.

Four days later, the province issued an emergency order allowing those stores to both deliver and offer curbside pickup from Monday to Sunday, between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m.

The order is in place for 14 days. 

The cannabis companies that survive 2020 will be hardened, battled tested and able to thrive for years to come.

But make no mistake, the pandemic-related market collapse is shortening the runway for debt-riddled weed firms and the number of bankruptcies will start increasing in the coming months.

That’s according to Ranjeev Dhillon, partner at McCarthy Tetrault and co-leader of their cannabis division, who handles mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies for some Canada’s largest weed companies.

Cannabis retailers in Ontario were allowed to reopen for curbside pickup and deliver on Tuesday under an emergency order issued by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO). The move reverses an order issued by the province last week that deemed recreational marijuana shops nonessential businesses and directed them to close to help contain the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Weed on wheels is coming to Ontario – the legal kind anyway.

Days after shutting down legal cannabis retailers as “non-essential” workplaces, the Ford government announced late Tuesday it will allow curbside pickup options and delivery.

Attorney General Doug Downie brought the issue to cabinet on Tuesday afternoon seeking an order to allow the retailers to still serve customers from 9 a.m. to 1 1p.m. as long as customers don’t enter the store. Cabinet approved the order and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario enacted the emergency order.

No more than 30 grams of dried cannabis will be allowed to be delivered or picked up.

What went wrong?

The Ontario Cannabis Store will, once again, have a monopoly in the province.

Brick-and-mortar cannabis shops will be removed from Ontario’s list of essential services, Doug Ford announced on Friday afternoon. The emergency order will go into effect Saturday night and will last for at least the next two weeks. 

Ontario, which had just begun to ramp up its offerings of cannabis retail locations, including several stores opening across the province just this week, will now rely on the OCS for all legal weed. 

Devastated bars and lounges as well as the country's hard-hit cannabis sector will have access to $40 billion in new credit being made available via the government's business bank during the COVID-19 crisis, its CEO said on Sunday.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Michael Denham said the program from the Business Development Bank of Canada would now be open to all businesses.

"Any legal business is eligible to be part of the program -- that was what I think some industry groups were concerned about," Denham said from Montreal. "That was clarified and we're going to formally announce it on Monday."

Applicants must go through their own banks to access the program.

The Ontario government’s decision to shut down cannabis stores in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic will only send customers back to the black market where they’ll buy unregulated products, says one prominent retailer.

Cameron Brown, spokesman for the The Hunny Pot, says his company has two stores open already and four under construction. The company’s location in downtown Toronto was one of the first to open in April 2019 and has been doing brisk enough business that more stores are on the way.

He said after Premier Doug Ford announced pot shops would be closed due to COVID, his store in Toronto and another location in Burlington were swamped.