If reports of Premier Doug Ford’s pirouette to private sector pot sales prove true, people wishing to buy cannabis products in Ontario when the legal market opens Oct. 17 may lack one thing.

Stores.

Both Vice News and the Globe and Mail reported Thursday that Ford is expected to announce next week that he is scrapping plans to have the Crown-owned LCBO oversee Ontario Cannabis Store operations, instead throwing brick and mortar retail sales over to private businesses.

While a spokesperson for the premier said the reports were not entirely accurate, no new information was available Friday.

With plans still unclear, some experts say it would be hard to pass legislation, create a regulatory and licensing framework, and vet potential retailers by mid-October.

“We still need to get exact details but ... given the tight deadline for Oct. 17 for cannabis legalization it might be the case consumers will need to buy online until retail stores can be finalized,” says Rod Elliot, senior vice president with the Toronto consulting firm Global Public Affairs.

Indeed, Matei Olaru, CEO of the Toronto-based Lift & Co, says Ontario cannabis shoppers won’t likely see the inside of a pot store until next year under a private-sector plan.

“I just think you won’t see private, brick and mortar until 2019,” Olaru says, citing licensing requirements for retailers.

That means recreational cannabis buyers in the province will be left with the province’s online shopping option — though that format would have borne the bulk of the business across Ontario anyway, Elliot says.

Under the previous Liberal government’s plans, just four retail outlets, including one in Toronto, would have opened on legalization day, with another 36 opening across the province over the following year.

And Olaru believes the LCBO-backed Ontario Cannabis Store will still run the online operations.

Some private store aspirants say the timeline would be tight to open on Oct. 17, but they likely could if things break right.

Bruce Linton, CEO of the Canopy Growth Group, a publicly traded marijuana firm, says his company has already been granted private retail licenses in Newfoundland, Manitoba and Saskatchewan and that it could almost certainly meet any requirements Ontario will put forward.

Linton says the $7.3 billion Canopy already has a store design and security protocol in place for outlets in other provinces. He also says he would like to set up a factory-front retail outlet and a tour operation at the company’s giant grow operation in Smith Falls, Ont.

Elliot, head of his firm’s cannabis practice, says the five provinces — B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland — that currently plan to allow private sector participation in cannabis sales are well along in their regulatory and licensing procedures that will see stores open on legalization day.

Most experts believe clearing a path for private ownership will create more outlets, greater product selection and perhaps, reduced prices, depending on the eventual regulatory framework.

But opinions differ on which kind of stores cannabis buyers will likely be shopping in around the province.

Olaru says they would almost certainly all be dedicated dispensaries that would sell nothing but cannabis products and accessories. Having cannabis beside the canned-goods aisle at Loblaws would be too jarring for many Ontario residents, he says.

But cannabis industry expert Deepak Anand predicts sales would be spread to a variety of vendors including supermarkets, dedicated dispensaries and even corner stores.

Anand, vice president of business development and government relations at the firm Cannabis Compliance Inc., believes some 10 to 15 private stores in Ontario will be able to open their doors on day one if the province brings in clear requirements in the near future.

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Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, whose workers staff LCBO stores, calls the private store idea “stupid” but allowed it might have been a trial balloon on the part of the new Conservative government.

Thomas said his main fear would be that private retailers would not enforce age and intoxication restrictions as thoroughly as an-LCBO run business.

A Toronto Star poll shows that almost two-thirds of respondents support private retail sales of cannabis.

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