On Aug. 13, 2018, the newly elected PC government under Premier Doug Ford announced it would be moving away from the LCBO-style stores announced by the previous Liberal government, instead moving towards privately owned and operated physical stores that would start to open in April 2019.

In November 2017, the Mercury Tribune first reported that Guelph had been selected to be one of the first places in the province to legally purchase marijuana.

Under the previous Liberal government, the province planned to establish and operate its own cannabis retail stores, operating them much like it does with the LCBO.

By April 2018, a location for the promised store had been named — 314 Stone Rd W. It was also expected to be one of the first 40 stores to be open by the time recreational cannabis was legal that coming October.

According to documents obtained by the Mercury Tribune, the lease for the future store was signed weeks before any official announcement was made, with the province signing on the dotted line March 22, 2018, and the landlord signing four days later.

The province was to have possession of the property no later than June 1, signing a five-year lease.

The amount being paid in rent, the tenant’s share of the operating costs, the terms for an early termination of the lease or any other commissions that would need to be paid were all redacted from the documents obtained by the Mercury Tribune.

When contacted by the Mercury Tribune in August 2018, shortly after the change in provincial policy, a spokesperson for the OCRC said the lease would be honoured, and that the organization was looking at what to do with the would-be storefronts.

It is unclear if the OCRC still holds the lease on the property, or if it utilized the early termination clause of the lease.

The Mercury Tribune is currently appealing this decision with the province’s Information and Privacy Commissioner.

‘Completely bungled it’

With the store continuing to sit vacant, Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner says the Ford government needs to be more transparent with how much it cost the province to change course when it comes to cannabis sales.

“The fact that they're not being open and transparent, it's deeply problematic,” Schreiner adds.

The Ontario Green Party leader says he was opposed to the LCBO-like model put in place by the previous Liberal government, and that the move to a private model was a step in the right direction.

“But they’ve completely bungled it unfortunately because we still don’t have enough stores across the province,” he says, adding the Ford government could have looked at a hybrid model instead.

“You would have private and public retail, which could have avoided some of these lease costs while at the same time rolling out the private model.”

As for what the OCRC should do with the Guelph store, if it still holds the lease, the answer for Schreiner is simply.

“Somebody else can take over the lease,” he says.

“That’s what any other smart business would do.”