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“I feel real joy over the chance to actually put an application in. This is great news,” she said.

“I mean, I don’t think this is a slam dunk victory because there is still a cap of 20 licences per month, but at least now we know we can apply as an operator in January and the AGCO will let us know by March, what our chances are in getting a store authorization. There’s so much more clarity.”

Small business owners were not the only ones bleeding money in the one year wait period between the lottery system and the open market system. Darren Bondar, CEO of Spiritleaf, one of the largest cannabis retailers in Canada with 41 stores across the country, admits that the cost of waiting on over 20 locations he had signed leases on in Ontario was high, but still far less than what a licence was valued at after the first lottery — in the range of $4 million to $6 million, according to a number of estimates.

“I’m just 100 per cent happy to know that we are going to be able to recoup our losses on those leases, now that this announcement has come,” Bondar said.

It might not be as easy for James, although he obviously intends to apply for a licence. “It’s going to be hard, but I’m in so deep now, so I have to keep going,” he said.

“I’m happy about the announcement but I would just say that I wish the government had just let us small business owners get a head start on this. I’m worried that with all these big businesses having had a year to grow, we are now going to just be set up for failure.”

• Email: vsubramaniam@nationalpost.com | Twitter: VanmalaS