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Deloitte has predicted that cannabis could someday be worth $22.6 billion a year in Canada. Cacchione believes much of this will be spent in restaurants, and so he plans to adapt his culinary skills and knowledge to cannabis. (Restaurants in U.S. states where cannabis is legal already offer it in food such as sushi, pizza and pastas.)

The federal government is delaying the legalization of edibles — users will only be able to buy dried cannabis, oils, seeds and plants next year — but will someday regulate the sale of cannabis in food form.

“It’s something that I think is going to take off pretty soon because a lot of people who use it don’t want to smoke it,” Cacchione said. “People enjoy ingesting it and how it feels in that form.”

Photo by Nick Procaylo / PNG

Aurora Lybarger, 26, came to the fair with a plastic folder stuffed with resumes.

Lybarger said she likes her landscaping job, but dreads the thought of another lean winter spent hunting for part-time work. She briefly went on EI for the first time last year and vows to never do so again. She hopes to enter the cannabis industry in trimming, cultivation or sales.

“I just figure it’s booming. There’s huge opportunity right now and I might as well try and see what it’s like,” said Lybarger, who is from Surrey.

She met with recruiters from Cannabis At Work, Aurora Cannabis and several other firms looking to hire accountants, laboratory technicians, IT staff and dozens of other positions. Close to 300 people had pre-registered for the fair, according to organizers.