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When the announcement was made, Health Canada had granted just 44 production licenses since it starting doling out approvals four years prior. Since then, however, the number has almost doubled to 80.

Provincial governments, police forces and marijuana companies have also been scrambling to prepare for legalized recreational sales, which the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed Wednesday are expected by July — but not necessarily the Canada Day deadline that many had assumed.

A wave of pending applications has the potential to nearly triple the number of producers operating in a legal recreational market.

Health Canada spokeswoman Tammy Jarbeau said that as of Dec. 1, 208 applicants were in the final stages of the approval process.

“These applicants have completed the security clearance process and their application is being reviewed to determine whether it meets all the requirements of the regulations,” she said in a statement.

“A licence is only issued once security clearances have been granted, the application meets the regulatory requirements and a facility has been built.”

Industry watchers who had been expecting a spike in the number of licenses were nonetheless surprised by the latest figures, saying the number of pending approvals exceeded their expectations.

But Vahan Ajamian, a research analyst with Beacon Securities Ltd., cautioned against interpreting the high number of applications as a sign that Canada will avoid a supply crunch.