$20K licensing fee and a $10K annual licence renewal fee proposed.

A proposed bylaw for the sale of marijuana in Saskatoon could see future retailers pay $20,000 for a licence and another $10,000 per year to renew that licence.

The city's Standing Policy Committee on Planning, Development and Community Services also recommends that any pot shop in the city have an air filtration system installed so that the smell of weed doesn't disturb nearby businesses. 

The report said the cash from the licences "can be used to mitigate the costs of regulation," but added that the fee structure could be reworked as marijuana becomes more established in the city.

The Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Association selected the operators for the province’s 51 cannabis retail store permits.  More than two-thirds of these successful applicants are from Saskatchewan or have operations in the province.

Receiving the Weyburn permits will be Torrance Aitken of Weyburn and Compass Cannabis Clinic, which operates in B.C. and Alberta.

Province wants online sales kept inside Sask. borders.

Andrew MacCorquodale says Canopy Growth Corporation is going to sell recreational marijuana online when it becomes legal, but how much of the company's business will come through the internet is a wild card.

Canopy emerged as one of the big winners in the lottery to see which applicants get to sell pot legally in Saskatchewan. The company won five of the 51 permits — the largest single allotment in the province.

Canopy already supplies medical marijuana to patients with legal prescriptions. MacCorquodale said it will draw on that model when setting up the recreational side.

MacCorquodale said it's going to be interesting to see how the online side of the business evolves.

Now that 51 operators for Saskatchewan’s cannabis retail stores are selected, the real work begins according to the president of one of the two successful applicants for the permits in North Battleford.

James Davey of Curativa Cannabis, a division of Envirosafe Chemicals Canada said his company was honoured to be part of the historical marijuana movement in Canada, especially with the amount of competition there was for the permits.

“When you think that there was a four per cent chance of being selected for one of the retail permits, it really is quite remarkable,” Davey told battlefordsNOW. “We are certainly proud to bring the cannabis retail business and opportunity to North Battleford.”

As legalization of marijuana approaches in Canada, 51 cannabis retail applicants in Saskatchewan are under review.

The province will look at each application and decide whether to grant permits to legally sell marijuana to the public once it is legalized later this fall.

Allen and Denise Kilback in the R.M. of Edenwold were granted a permit. The couple owns the Happy Hour Liquor Store in Pilot Butte. They hope to make a pot shop that is similar. The Kilbacks have visited stores in the United States, and want their store to provide a world class, safe feeling.

"It’s going to be a high end dispensary. Where people are going to want to come to, and feel safe, and have excellent customer service,” Kilback said.

Tweed Grasslands, Yorkton — owned by an international company — won five of 51 pot permits in Sask.

The biggest winner of last week's lottery-style draw for permits to sell marijuana in Saskatchewan is a well-known player on the international cannabis and hemp scene. 

Tweed Grasslands, Yorkton (Canopy Growth Corporation) won five of the 51 available permits. Provided it meets necessary requirements, such as criminal record checks, the company will be able to open shops in Fort Qu'Appelle, Humboldt, Meadow Lake, Melville and the R.M. of Corman Park.

Canopy Growth Corporation, which owns Tweed, is an international cannabis and hemp company with connections to multiple brands and recognizable people in the cannabis industry, including rapper Snoop Dogg.

Cierra Sieben-Chuback says permit offer is like 'my birthday on steroids'.

Saskatoon business school student Cierra Sieben-Chuback has beaten out more more than 150 other candidates for one of seven highly sought-after permits to operate a cannabis retail store in the city.

Sieben-Chuback, 23, has never run her own business before, but that's about to change very quickly.

"I convocate on Wednesday," she said of her impending graduation from the University of Saskatchewan's Edwards School of Business.

"It's like my birthday on steroids. This is quite surreal, I'm not going to lie."

'All by myself'

Tweed online store to serve customers across the Province in addition to retail locations

The Saskatchewan Government has named the 51 successfully qualified applicants to sell cannabis across the province.

“This represents the next step in the process of having a privately-operated cannabis retail system carefully regulated by SLGA,” Minister Responsible for SLGA Gene Makowsky said in a news release. “There was a lot of interest in the public Request for Proposal process, resulting in many new businesses that will invest in our province.”

Pot stores can't set up within a block of daycares, schools, places where minors congregate.

Regina's city council has decided that the city's future pot shops cannot within one block of daycares, schools or other places youths are known to frequent — unless it's downtown.

The one block buffer zone will not apply in downtown Regina. Instead each shop's approval in the area will be at the discretion of city council.

Likewise, if a pot shop is set up first, a daycare, school or any other place with children cannot set up within one block. The final bylaw will be put to a vote on at next month's city council meeting.