Some things do change. In a U-turn-like turnaround, Cannabis NB is making money and increasing sales faster than its provincial neighbours.

As the retailer contemplates the best private-sector operator to take over from the province, out of a pool of heavy-hitters that include Canopy Growth and Loblaws, the company’s numbers are on the rise.

Numbers from Statistics Canada show the Crown corporation hit $3.7 million in sales during November, a 4.8 per cent increase from the previous month and a 14.6 per cent increase from November 2018.

Retail executives cited price drops that place the price of legal weed closer to that of the  illicit market as largely responsible for the sales boost.

“We’ve been able to offer competitive pricing, with our per gram price going as low at $3.30, tax in, on promotions,” Cannabis NB spokesperson Tom Tremblay told CBC News. “This has attracted new customers and more consistent traffic in our stores.”

The sales boost puts Cannabis NB at the front of the pack in Atlantic Canadian sales when considering month-by-month increases in legal cannabis sales. Numbers in Prince Edward Island are steady, but have not shown a rise of late, whereas both Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia have shown declines in sales.

Some experts said Cannabis NB will have to further reduce its prices to continue to compete with the illicit market. / Photo: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

Despite the encouraging numbers, some experts said Cannabis NB will have to further reduce its prices to continue to compete with the illicit market. “The government should never have been in the business,” University of Waterloo professor Anindya Sen told Postmedia.

“Why would you want to have a monopolist? Why would government not auction off the stores they have, get some returns from that, and people who want to buy the stores can open up the market? I don’t understand why governments across Canada are veering away from competitive markets,” Sen said.

The province opted to privatize after a year of Cannabis NB bleeding money, with Alcool NB Liquor (ANBL) president and CEO Patrick Parent turning the blame outward for the  failure to turn a profit.

The company has raised provincial ire after suffering store closures and employee layoffs while paying double stipends to the province’s liquor and cannabis companies’ shared boards.