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Indeed demand for rental accommodation throughout the town is also fueled by the fact many of Canopy Growth’s newer employees are young, so they haven’t saved much yet for down payments. Nor are wage rates or salaries in the cannabis industry especially strong.

Photo by Darren Brown / Postmedia

More generally, local real estate professionals wonder whether Linton’s exit will weaken the Smiths Falls housing market somewhat. Linton, after all, had been a great champion of the area. Now that effective control of Canopy Growth has passed to Victor, N.Y.-based Constellation Brands, will the Smiths Falls operation remain secure?

Ordinarily you could dismiss such negative thoughts. A tour of the Smiths Falls plant reveals a gleaming, state-of-the-art cannabis production line. The company has also invested tens of millions of dollars in software and supply chain management technology. It’s very difficult to imagine Constellation Brands would one day write off this massive investment and move it elsewhere.

And yet Smiths Falls remains very much scarred by its experience with Hershey, the U.S.-based chocolate maker that served for decades as the town’s key employer until one day, nearly a decade ago, it simply left.

Competitive global enterprises must constantly refresh their technology to stay relevant.

Constellation Brands invested $5.1 billion to acquire 37 per cent of Canopy Growth’s equity. It has an option to invest an equivalent amount more. If exercised, that move would give Constellation Brands nearly half of Canopy Growth’s ownership. Even for a corporation the size of Constellation Brands, that’s significant money. If its leaders believe for a moment the Smiths Falls operation represents a long-term risk, perhaps because it can’t attract the right kinds of skills in the right quantity, there’s little doubt it would move to head off the danger. The U.S. firm could do so by investing in facilities elsewhere or by trying to shore up the Smiths Falls investment.

Either way, it’s almost certainly too early to contemplate such gloomy options, though that won’t stop some Smiths Falls residents from dwelling on their unfortunate history with U.S. multinationals. Perhaps the company will ease their fears this Wednesday.

Photo by James Bagnall / Postmedia

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