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Australian delegates are hoping to learn from Alberta’s expertise after visiting the Aurora Sky medical marijuana production facility Thursday.

“We’re now at the point where we need to see what this looks like on a large scale,” said Jaala Pulford, minister for agriculture and regional development for the state government of Victoria. “Our medicinal cannabis industry we can age by weeks rather than years.”

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The Australian politician kicked off her trade mission with a helicopter tour of the 75,000-square-metre Aurora Sky facility, which Aurora Cannabis is constructing near Edmonton International Airport.

The facility is expected to be finished before Canada’s legalization of recreational marijuana in July 2018, but the company plans to start production earlier to produce medical cannabis.

“People understand it now, the stigma has gone away, they understand how many jobs there are — high-tech jobs, transportation jobs, security jobs,” said Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Shaye Anderson, who also had his first aerial look at the facility. “It’s a huge growth industry, no pun intended.”