Cierra Sieben-Chuback had just completed her degree at the University of Saskatchewan when she received a cash offer few debt-laden students can even imagine.

As Sieben-Chuback was looking to the future in June 2018, she discovered she was among 51 lottery winners of licences to obtain permits to operate legal cannabis retail stores in Saskatchewan.

Others found out about her good fortune, too — which resulted in multiple offers from large companies for her permit, as high as a “couple million” dollars, “Which is crazy because I’ve never in my life been offered that kind of money,” she said.

“I was approached by a few large companies, but that conversation was really short and easy because I was never planning on selling the licence,” the 24-year-old entrepreneur said in an interview in the loft of Living Skies Cannabis in downtown Saskatoon that serves as her office.

“I wanted this thing so badly, I wasn’t going to let it go. I couldn’t really see myself doing something else once I got that seed in my head.”

Clayton Sparks, a Saskatoon businessman who won a licence to operate a store in La Loche, said he’s heard about offers to buy permits in the province ranging from $1.5 million to as high as $10 million.

Sparks said in an interview last week that he received “interesting offers” for his permit, but suspects the high-end offers overestimated the value of the stores.

As with most of the cannabis stores in Saskatchewan, a supply shortage hindered the opening of Living Skies Cannabis after recreational marijuana became legal in Canada on Oct. 17, 2018.

Sieben-Chuback’s store finally opened Dec. 3 after she determined supply was sufficient for the store to open for business and remain open.

For about a month and a half, Living Skies operated like other cannabis stores facing a limited supply — customers were only allowed two items per visit.

Sieben-Chuback said she and her staff did a poor job of enforcing the limit: “We just wanted to make everyone happy.”

On March 25, Living Skies moved from opening six days a week to seven. The store on Third Avenue endured another supply shortage, which Sieben-Chuback believes was linked to other stores opening elsewhere in Canada, but now offers about 60 to 80 products.

The store employs about 12 people, which is pretty much the same as when it started.

Retailers in Saskatchewan are allowed to purchase their products directly from licensed producers. Most of the products sold at Living Skies come from Ontario and Alberta. Some are produced in B.C. and New Brunswick.

Sieben-Chuback was among 1,502 applicants for one of 51 licences to operate a cannabis retail store in 32 communities.

“If I had known how many people had applied, I wouldn’t have been so hopeful,” she said.

As of last week, the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA) had approved 36 licences for stores to sell recreational marijuana.

The province’s largest city, Saskatoon, hosts the most stores at six, followed by Regina with five. Another five cities boast two stores.

Weyburn is the largest city in Saskatchewan without a licensed cannabis store, a fact not lost on Mayor Marcel Roy.

“It just keeps going on and on and on,” Roy said in a phone interview. “It’s very frustrating. We are one of the 10 major cities.”

Michael Glover, a spokesman for the Saskatchewan Party government’s Executive Council, said in an email last week that one of the lottery winners for a store in Weyburn “failed to meet the requirements for a permit.”

Those who won licences for stores in Canora, the Rural Municipality of Corman Park that surrounds Saskatoon, Maple Creek, Outlook, Rosetown and Melfort withdrew their applications.

Glover said in addition to selecting 51 lottery winners for licences, the province also picked 51 runners-up in case the winners withdrew or were ruled ineligible.

Those runners-up in six of the communities listed above are now in the process of applying for permits, Glover said. The exception is Canora, where nobody is interested in pursuing a store.

The application process is confidential until a permit is awarded, Glover said, so information on the status of a given permit cannot be shared.

Roy, however, said last week he’s been led to believe a store could open in 45 to 60 days. But he thinks it might be too late for a store to thrive with people already turning to online sales.

“It’s quite astounding,” he said. “There’s smaller places than us that have stores already.”

Roy added that people who have made the hour drive to Regina have told him the cost at legal stores remains “way too expensive.”

Weyburn’s drug trade, including illegal drugs and marijuana, is estimated to be worth $4 million to $6 million a year, according to Roy.

Roy echoed a common refrain among Saskatchewan municipalities for the need for Premier Scott Moe’s government to share revenue from the federal government with communities that shoulder the extra costs of legal marijuana, such as policing.

Back in Saskatoon, Sieben-Chuback acknowledged the novelty has worn off after a year.

“When we first opened, generally people were really excited because this is this brand new thing that they’ve never been able to walk into a store in Saskatoon before and buy cannabis,” she recalled.

Uncertain supply when she first opened as well as high prices might have deterred customers, who could find cheaper, more reliable weed from illegal dealers.

“I would say it’s affecting us less than it was in October,” she said of the black market. “That being said, the black market had a place and I don’t really want to speak ill about it because if it wasn’t for that black market industry, this legal industry probably wouldn’t be here today.

“I kind of tip my hat off to those pioneers and trailblazers who came before.”

Sieben-Chuback said she’s not really aware of the extent of the black market for cannabis today, but she knows it’s still there.

“We have customers who will outright tell us — it’s kind of weird — their dealer’s out right now so that’s why they’re in the store,” she laughed.

As an independent, Sieben-Chuback had to face an obstacle few others did: the $20,000 business licence fee imposed by Saskatoon city council.

Council voted in August to reduce the renewal fee from the original $10,000 to $85, the same as for any other business.

“I feel like it’s definitely a step in the right direction to normalizing this industry,” Sieben-Chuback said. “They’re starting to treat us the same as any other retail business because, really, at the end of the day, that’s all we are.”

She said she’s visited the other stores in the city and finds them nice, although she expresses an affection for the city’s other independent store, The Pot Shack in the Holliston neighbourhood.

She also noticed a big difference in prices from store to store. Sieben-Chuback said her store’s prices reflect the cost from the producers and she believes in making marijuana as affordable as possible.

“Cannabis is not exclusive to those who have a lot of cash,” she said.

Most of the stores in Saskatoon and in the province are part of a chain. The biggest player right now is Tweed with seven stores, including one in Saskatoon and two in Regina.

Tweed is the retail face of Canada’s largest cannabis company, Canopy Growth Corp. based in Smith Falls, Ont. Tweed is expected to open the seventh retail outlet in Saskatoon.

Edmonton-based Fire and Flower has six stores in Saskatchewan and Calgary-based Prairie Records has opened three locations, including two in Saskatoon.

The rise of chains in the province prompted Sparks and other independents to establish the Saskatchewan Weed Pool, a co-operative based on the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.

As the name suggests, the co-operative would pool the resources of the independents to buy and sell cannabis. The SLGA estimates that two-thirds of the cannabis stores in the province belong to chains.

“Essentially, what we’re doing is buying for the whole group,” Sparks said.

So far, the weed pool has eight members, though Sparks said three or four of the runners-up could join once their permits are approved.

“I think there’s too many chains,” Sieben-Chuback said. “It would nice to see more independent stores like myself.”

Sieben-Chuback has joined the weed pool, but is still learning about it.

On the production side, Health Canada approves producers; Glover said there are 52 companies approved and registered with SLGA to sell cannabis to Saskatchewan retailers.

Health Canada’s list of approved producers includes nine in Saskatchewan, six of which had their licences approved this year. The City of Saskatoon has received two applications for production facilities in Saskatoon.

Sieben-Chuback acknowledged legal cannabis has become an industry over the last year, but she pointed out it’s more than that.

She believes independent stores like hers fit more comfortably into the cannabis culture, she said. She wore a Living Skies Cannabis shirt for her interview, with the “born and raised” slogan on the arm.

If you go to the website of Westleaf, the parent company of Prairie Records, the leadership team looks pretty much like any other group of executives. Almost all of the mostly male executives are wearing blazers, but only one is wearing a tie.

“Cannabis has a culture with it and it’s not corporate guys in suits,” Sieben-Chuback said.