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Ottawa entrepreneur Mike Diduca hopes to open a cannabis superstore this spring in a Montreal Road building now containing a Royal Bank branch.

On Sussex Drive at Rideau, one of the city’s most famous intersections, plans are afoot for a cannabis boutique called mīhī.

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Elsewhere around town, new outlets of Hobo and Superette, two of the city’s original cannabis stores, could pop up as well.

That’s a hint of what to expect as the province opens up the cannabis retail trade after the initial number of shops was restricted because of a shortage of pot.

Licence applications open Jan. 6 for entrepreneurs who want to run cannabis shops.

It will be a gradual rollout, though. The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario plans to start issuing licences in April at the moderate clip of about 20 a month.

Diduca plans to call his store Budroom. He is negotiating with the landlord of the bank building in Gloucester, on Montreal Road near Shefford. At about 4,600 square feet, it could be the largest cannabis store in Canada, he says. Unless, of course, someone else opens a larger one.