Small-town Southwestern Ontario is pushing back against Ontario’s plan to cushion the fallout of legal marijuana with money, saying the funding formula puts small centres at a big disadvantage.

The province recently announced the second instalment that municipalities will get from a $40-million fund to help cover costs stemming from the roll-out of recreational marijuana use, including police enforcement, over the next two years.

But Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley, the region’s senior civic leader, said four months into legal weed in Canada, municipalities have practically been an afterthought.

There's a little something different in the swag bags that Oscar-nominated actors will receive this year — a range of cannabis products and services from five companies, including one from a Canadian company.

The "Everyone Wins" gift bags are sent to all 25 nominees in the acting categories, and — although not officially sanctioned by the Oscars — their extravagant nature has given the bags some star status of their own.

In the first months after the legalization of cannabis, sales at cannabis stores in Saskatchewan were lagging behind every other province in the country, according to the latest figures from Statistics Canada.

Across Canada, $151.5 million in cannabis was sold from the date of legalization on Oct.17, 2018, to the end of December. 

Saskatchewan cannabis stores sold just under $2.5 million in product in that time, below Prince Edward Island's sales of just under $3.4 million. P.E.I.'s population is about 150,000 people, compared with Saskatchewan's population of just under 1.2 million.

In comparison, people in Saskatchewan spent $227.7 million at beer, wine and liquor stores in the months from October to December. 

As the federal government prepares to legalize cannabis edibles next October, the City of Delta is readying its arguments on how the edible market should be regulated.

The city’s primary concern regarding cannabis edibles, city manager Sean McGill told council, is the way products that look like candies appeal to youth. The mayor’s delegation to Ottawa next week will present that concern as well as issues with how edibles are packaged when it meets with federal legislators.

“There are certainly stories of kids accessing things that look like gummy bears or some kind of treats with bright colours, and eating them and overdosing in some capacity, so that’s probably the biggest concern,” McGill said.

Tilray is buying Manitoba Harvest, the world’s largest hemp foods manufacturer, for $317 million from Compass Diversified Holdings, eyeing the growing CBD food and drink market in the U.S.

The acquisition, announced Wednesday, gives Tilray access to the U.S. CBD market — and traditional retail spaces — starting with a line of CBD tinctures, sprays and soft gel caps, expected to launch this summer.

Tilray will issue another $37 million (C$49 million) in shares to Manitoba Harvest based on certain financial milestones in 2019.

Canopy Growth, a Smith Falls-based marijuana producer, is teaming up with Quebec’s Couche-Tard, the operator of 15,000 variety stores worldwide under the Circle K and other banners, to enter a licence agreement with an Ontario pot lottery winner planning to open an outlet near White Oaks Mall.

“The council there voted overwhelmingly in favour of retail cannabis locations,” Shega Youngson, Canopy’s community engagement manager, said of council’s 13-1 vote Dec. 18 to allow brick-and-mortar stores.

“It’s exciting to be starting our retail footprint in a community that has been open and welcoming to our new industry.”

The president of Crosby's Molasses has confirmed he's launching a separate company to get into the cannabis edibles business.

James Crosby says the company, EYG Consumables, has applied for a licence with Health Canada and purchased a property in the McAllister Industrial Park in Saint John.

"We are looking to take our extensive food manufacturing experience into the cannabis-infused food space," Crosby said Wednesday in a statement to CBC. "This will be a separate facility at a separate location."

Crosby is the son of Jim Crosby, the owner and chair of Crosby's Molasses.

The new company is not part of Crosby's Molasses.

Manitoba Harvest, the Canada-based hemp-foods business, has accepted a takeover offer from Tilray, a local peer producing and distributing cannabis.

Tilray has struck a cash-and-shares deal to pay CAD419m (US$314.6m) for FHF Holdings, the parent company of Manitoba Holdings, which it described as "the world's largest hemp food manufacturer and a leader in the natural foods industry".

Set up in 1998, Manitoba Harvest manufactures and markets hemp-based consumer products sold in more than 16,000 stores in Canada and the US. The company's products include Hemp Yeah granola and Hemp Bliss milk.

City staff are recommending privately-owned cannabis shops be allowed in Whitehorse’s downtown core, including on Main Street, council heard at the Feb. 18 standing committees meeting.

In 2018, council created a new type of zoning – “Retail Sales, Restricted” – specifically to handle the sale of marijuana and related products. At the time it was implemented it was limited to the Marwell area, where the government-owned pot shop has already opened.

Canada's largest cannabis company plans to open London's second brick-and-mortar cannabis retail store at a commercial plaza on Wellington Street South north of Bradley Avenue. 

Smith Falls, Ont.-based Canopy Growth plans to open the store at 1025 Wellington Street South under its Tweed brand, pending approval of its application by the Alcohol Gaming Commission of Ontario. 

The application has been filed through a numbered Ontario company, which is registered to a duplex in Toronto's Steeles Avenue and Leslie Street area.