Allan Rewak, of the Cannabis Council of Canada, told 1310 NEWS' The Rick Gibbons Show that the initial 25 pot shop licences will just be the first tranche of a larger phase-in process.

The executive director of the Cannabis Council of Canada says that while only one or two pot shops will open in Ottawa on April 1, it will only be the beginning.

The provincial government recently announced that it will only be granting 25 licences provincewide to retail stores looking to sell recreational marijuana starting in April. The government had previously said that the number of stores would be uncapped.

But Allan Rewak, of the Cannabis Council of Canada, told 1310 NEWS' The Rick Gibbons Show that the initial 25 licences will just be the first tranche of a larger phase-in process. He said he hopes to see more than 150 licensed stores open in the province by the end of 2019.

"This is simply one step in a long road," he said.

Listen to the full interview:

After the Progressive Conservatives came to power this summer, they axed their Liberal predecessors' plan to open bricks-and-motor locations of the Ontario Cannabis Store that would be run by the LCBO. Under their new plan, private retailers would be licensed to sell cannabis and the OCS would still operate as an online mail order system.

Since recreational marijuana became legal in Canada on October 17, the OCS — which currently provides the only legal way to buy recreational marijuana in Ontario — has struggled to keep up with demand.

Ottawa's city council recently voted to opt into the province's plan to license retail stores to sell recreational marijuana. Rewak said the nation's capital will only see one or two pot shops open by April 1, but more will be approved in future.

Rewak said the plan to approve just 25 stores at first is a "measured and responsible" approach.

"Legalization doesn't change everything with the flip of a light switch. This is going to be a process," said Rewak. "And it's going to take us years to fully build out a mature retail system in every province and every community in this country. But we're moving very fast considering how long we were facing prohibition and we're moving faster each day."

He added the process of building such a system has been challenging because of some "speed bumps" along the way, as well as the overwhelming demand Canadians have shown for recreational marijuana.