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“So many companies are just running to scale up,” said Maurizio Calconi, the head of recruiting for Cannabis Compliance, an industry consulting firm.

“This is an exciting industry to be in. The growth in this space is incredible.”

A quick look at two Southwestern Ontario counties – Bruce and Essex – shows how cannabis has the ability to reshape entire communities.

Producer 7Acres has become Bruce County’s second-largest employer – behind only Bruce Power, the operator of the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station – with 600 employees at its greenhouse operation in Kincardine.

How did a pot grower end up in Lake Huron cottage country?

Kincardine was the only place with the required greenhouse space available and the capability to power a massive pot-growing operation, said John Fowler, president and founder of Supreme, the parent company of 7Acres.

“We also liked on paper the relative sizes of Kincardine, Port Elgin and the surrounding communities from a labour pool perspective, knowing that we were going to scale up hundreds of employees,” he said.

Supreme is expanding its footprint to Goderich, where the company is building a $14-million cannabis genetic research and development centre that will employ dozens more people once it opens by year’s end, Fowler said.

“We really think we have an opportunity to put Goderich on the map globally as a hub for cannabis agriculture,” he said, noting the facility will be the largest standalone cannabis research centre in the country.