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In Battleford, there was a one in 20 chance to win, because there were 20 applicants. In Estevan, chances were one in 54; in Martensville, one in 47; and in Moosomin, one in 26.

“Our goal was to enter our proposals that we decided on and to pass (the vetting process), get in the lottery,” Thomas said.

“The way we looked at it is that’s the best we can do, right? … We had a business plan ready to go and everyone’s in the same boat at that point.”

More than a few critics have questioned the legitimacy of the lottery, including Toronto applicant Greg Paul.

“The chances of (a few corporations) getting all of these licences out of how many applicants there were, in my opinion they’re very slim,” Paul said Monday.

“Obviously the statistical chances of some of these companies appearing again and again and again for multiple licences is probably pretty low,” agreed Regina applicant Pat Warnecke.

Photo by BRANDON HARDER / Regina Leader-Post

COMPANIES PREVAIL AGAINST TINY PROBABILITY

Despite what Volodin called an “unreasonably small” probability, six entities were repeat winners, obtaining 19 of the 51 licences.

Prairie Sky was not the biggest winner of them all.

Tweed Grasslands, a Yorkton-based subsidiary of Ontario-based company Canopy Growth, won five licences — in Fort Qu’Appelle, Humboldt, Meadow Lake, Melville and the RM of Corman Park.

The odds of this occurring, according to Volodin, were one in 12,830,400.

“We came in with no expectations,” Andrew MacCorquodale, Canopy Growth’s head of operations for Western Canada, said Friday.