Following a detailed reported from the British Columbia (BC) Chamber of Commerce Cannabis Working Group, changes could be coming to the province’s emerging legal cannabis industry. (Click here for full article)

The group published a report that provides recommendations on how to develop and scale the industry to make it competitive with other provinces in Canada. From allowing licensed private retailers to take online orders to eliminating the 20% provincial tax on cannabis vape products, we believe these recommendations could be a catalyst for companies with leverage to BC.

The recommendations in the report can be classified under three primary topics: 1) consumer access, 2) regulatory costs and taxation, and 3) market design. Beside for allowing for online orders and eliminating additional taxes, 7 other recommendations include: 

1. Implementing a national excise tax that is based on a calculation of the percentage of sales 
2. The passing of a national excise stamp program
3. Allowing delivery services from companies like Skip the Dishes and Uber Eats for licensed retail stores
4. Developing a farm-gate program to allow licensed producers to sell products directly to consumers
5. Adding an economic mandate for cannabis at a ministerial level
6. Removing the limit on (or increasing) the number of retail locations per operator to help satisfy consumer demand for legal cannabis.
7. Providing retail operators with the ability to reallocate product inventory between stores that are owned by the same licensee.

So far, the provinces have been open to change and some of the policies have already been partially adopted by the province. Later this year, the group expects more policies to be enacted and we will monitor how BC’s cannabis market benefits from potential changes. 

If the policies outlined in the report are implemented, BC’s Chamber of Commerce Cannabis Working Group expects to see capital flow into the sector. BC Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Fiona Famulak expects the recommendations to create more jobs, increase tax revenue, and position the province’s cannabis sector as a leader in Canada and abroad. 

Over the next year, we will monitor how BC’s cannabis industry evolves to better understand the companies that are benefiting from it. There are several lower-profile cannabis retailers in BC which could be some of the greatest beneficiaries from the implementation of the Working Group’s recommendations. (Click Here to View the Entire Article)