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Licence approval for B.C.’s first government recreational cannabis store hinges on a decision by Kamloops city council at a meeting less than 10 hours before Oct. 17 legalization.

Six months before that date, council received a staff report on potential locations for non-medical cannabis stores, and a few weeks later approved a bylaw amendment allowing the shops. In July, the B.C. government announced that Kamloops would be home to the first provincially owned B.C. Cannabis Store, a 3,000-sq.-ft. space in a shopping centre.

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The ink on the store’s business licence will still be drying when it opens at 10 a.m. on Oct. 17.

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“It’s definitely last minute, because the province hasn’t had their regulations up and running for very long,” said Rod Martin, manager of planning and development for the city.

“Everything has been rushed to try and work toward that Oct. 17 date, but we’ve always been looking at it as trying to get legal ones up and running as quickly as we can so that we can get a safe, regulated supply on-stream and deal with the illegal ones that we had.”