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Cam Battley, chief corporate officer, characterized the decision to put Aurora Sun on the backburner as a “flexible and intelligent” manoeuvre to conserve expenses.

He noted that construction is still ongoing, albeit at a much slower pace, and that six of the planned 36 grow rooms, equivalent to more than 200,000 square feet of the facility, will become operational in early 2020. It is unclear how many jobs that will create for the time being.

“We’re able to start production before all the rooms are completed. We get approval for all of the rooms, and production begins,” Battley said. “Of course, it remains our intention to complete the entire facility.”

Photo by Gavin Young/Postmedia files

But doing so, the company said, is contingent upon two factors: an increase in the number of retail stores in Ontario, and the success of cannabis 2.0, which will put a slew of new products such as vape pens, edibles and beverages on the market, presumably increasing overall demand.

“During the course of 2020, we will have a clearer picture of what the timeline will be,” Battley said.

Yet some industry analysts are forecasting that Aurora Sun might not be fully operational and that cannabis growing will remain confined to just a sixth of its overall space for the next three to four years, a timeline that creates a major conundrum for Medicine Hat, which is heavily relying on the jobs that Aurora Sun might bring.

“In my view, the deterioration in cannabis industry conditions will make it unlikely the whole thing goes into production in three to four years,” said Chris Damas, a long-time cannabis industry analyst and author of The BCMI report. “If you step back, Aurora Sun at 230,000 kilograms a year compared to last-quarter cannabis sales of 12,463 kilograms meant that they were building capacity of 4.6 times their current sales rate, on top of the existing capacity of about 150,000 kilograms per year.”