

Joshua Freeman, CP24.com





A prize home in Markham has been pulled from the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre Home Lottery after organizers were informed that the home is located next to a house where the owner has a license to grow medical marijuana.

The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation announced the move in a news release issued Tuesday.

According to the foundation, the home at 39 Jeffrey Nidha Crescent in Markham will be withdrawn from the Home Lottery immediately and will not be open for public viewing.

“Last Friday we learned that one of our nine prize real estate properties actually backs on to a home where the individual has a license from Health Canada to have legalized marijuana. So they’re growing legalized marijuana in the home and it’s quite a pungent odour,” Princess Margaret Cancer Centre VP Christine Lasky told CP24 in an interview Tuesday evening.

Lasky said the foundation made the decision to pull the home after “careful consideration” over the weekend.

“It was the right decision to do,” Lasky said.

Lasky said the decision was made in consultation with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, which oversees charitable gaming, and with the developer, who is taking the home back.

An equivalent cash prize of $1.285 million plus regular bonus cash of $25,000 will be offered in place of the home itself, Lasky said.

The grand prize Kleinburg showhome, valued at $3.7 million, will still be open to the public for viewing, starting Saturday. The home is the lottery’s biggest prize ever and comes with a cottage and $100,000 in cash.

CP24 is affiliated with the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre Home Lottery as a media partner.