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“We literally got the email from the AGLC in our final meeting,” said Gilbert.

“We had just spent $20,000 on a secure room storage area,” she said.

“A lot of us had to go into our own pockets for money or RSPs because banks won’t lend to us.”

Gilbert’s Micro Gold Cannabis store opened in Okotoks a month ago, but only as a paraphernalia store until the moratorium is lifted and they can receive a cannabis supply.

That mean putting on hold the hiring of 13 staffers.

The black market, she said, has grown exponentially since legalization due to the legal marijuana supply shortage and dearth of stores.

“People are buying (pot) on the black market, then buying our gadgets,” said Gilbert.

Her family, she said, is determined to hang tough, but others who haven’t opened any business yet “will be touch-and-go, they’ve spent all their money and can’t borrow any.”

The ABCC’s Eric Entz said if the licensing suspension lasts a year, it could cost the province $18 million in tax revenue and industry players $13 million, particularly when factoring in leases that typically cost about $68,500 a year.

“They’ve given up a lot of their lives opening up cannabis stores . . . this moratorium has created a sense of unease in the community,” he said.

Retailers want the AGLC to open better lines of communication, which would ease anxiety among the sector, said Entz.

“It’s so retailers can see where they are in the queue for licences and understand where the supply is coming from and what that supply is,” he said.