The Evergreen Cannabis Society on West 4th will open Jan. 5 instead of Saturday as planned.

Vancouver’s first provincially-approved cannabis store has delayed its grand opening by a week.

In a social media post, Evergreen Cannabis Society said it was delaying the opening Saturday until Jan. 5 because of holiday timeline issues at city hall.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

Photo by Arlen Redekop / PNG

Evergreen Cannabis Society owners Mike Babins and Maria Petrucci had only learned on Christmas Eve they were approved to open Vancouver’s first licensed non-medical retail cannabis store.

Babins said there was some paperwork, including a good neighbour agreement, that still needed to be signed. He said without the documents, the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch couldn’t mail out the supply of retail cannabis.

“We’ve been playing by the rules, which is why we are the first to get a license so we aren’t going to start breaking them now,” he said, adding that he was confident they could get all the necessary documents signed in time to get the product and open next Saturday.

Asked if there were any issues with a cannabis supply shortage, Babins said, “absolutely not.”

The province began accepting applications online for private and government store licences Aug. 10. Since then, four have been approved — one in Vancouver, one in Pouce Coupe and two in Kimberley.

Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.