Emblem Cannabis president and CEO Nick Dean covers a lot of ground when talking about his company’s desire to open a cannabis store at its manufacturing facility in Paris.

Education is a big part of the company’s plan, Dean says.

So are product and consumer safety, revenue, jobs and tourism.

“When I think of what we’d like to do in terms of a store, I think about the wineries in the Niagara area and the tourists they help bring to the area,” Dean said in an interview. “Paris is already a destination community and I guess I see our proposal as something that, like the wineries in Niagara, bring people to Paris.

“Education has always been a big part of what we do on the medicinal side of cannabis and we want to bring that level of professionalism and knowledge to the recreational side as well.”

Dean made the comments in an interview Friday, just a couple of days before Brant County council is set to debate and likely vote on whether it should allow cannabis retail stores to open in the county. Retail outlets are expected to become legal on April 1, 2019, and municipalities have the option of opting in or opting out for a period of one year before revisiting the issue or simply not allowing stores to open.

Dean is hoping council will vote in favour of opting in.

“We’ve been in Paris for about four years now and we have 65 employees,” Dean said. “We’re adding a research and innovation centre to the facility and that’s going to bring even more skilled jobs to Paris.

“A retail outlet would create even more jobs.”

As well, there are people in Paris who are going to be looking for stores to purchase their cannabis. A store in Paris would keep the money being spent on recreational marijuana in the community, he said.

“I think it’s important also to talk about consumer safety,” Dean said. “When people purchase a product from us they know exactly what they’re getting and the expected result.”

The products coming out of the Paris facility meet Health Canada standards. The same can’t be said for cannabis purchased on the black market, he added.

Meanwhile, the provincial government announced on Thursday that it would issue only 25 licenses to cannabis retail outlets by April 1, 2019. Under the new plan, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario will implement a lottery system to determine who is eligible for a licence.

The province has said it plans to take a ‘phased-in’ approach to authorizing retail cannabis outlets because of ‘severe supply shortages’ across the country.

The results will be announced in January, the government.

Dean is hoping the AGCO will take a close look at the retail plans developed by licenced producers like Emblem.

“Clearly, the government is looking to phase this in and will start with 25 stores across Ontario,” Dean said. “I would think that they’ll be looking at those who have a strong cannabis or retail experience.

“As a licenced producer, we at Emblem have a lot of cannabis experience on the medical and now the recreational side of the business.”

Brant County councillors will be discussing retail marijuana outlets when council meets on Tuesday.

The councillors have three options:

Opt-in to allow cannabis stores. Once that determination is made the county could never opt out; opt-out with a one-year review that would include taking a look at the experience of other municipalities; or Not allow cannabis stores.

Brant County Mayor David Bailey has publicly stated he supports ‘opting-in.’

However, there are concerns about allowing retail cannabis stores in the county with some wondering if it would encourage people to start smoking marijuana.

Other concerns raised include driving while impaired by drugs and the proliferation of marijuana paraphernalia shops in the county.

Vball@postmedia.com

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