Article content

Once slated to get as few as three marijuana dispensaries, there’s now no cap on the number of pot shops that will be allowed to open in the London region under new legislation introduced Thursday.

After nixing the previous Liberal government’s planned monopoly on storefront cannabis sales, the Progressive Conservatives outlined their rules for regulating and licensing cannabis retailers in Ontario.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Rules on pot retailing seen as conducive to 'robust' sales network Back to video

Under the new private-public system, there’s no limit on the number of licences being granted to retailers – a move that drew praise from industry observers – while limiting commercial growers to one retail outlet that must be located at their production plant, known as farm-gate sales.

“They certainly didn’t protect LPs (licensed producers),” Ryerson business professor Brad Poulos said of the PC legislation.

“What they’re doing is making sure we create a genuinely robust framework, not something that’s just simply an extension of the manufacturing portion of the industry.”