Pemberton-based Coast Mountain Cannabis Inc. (CMC) has received a federal licence to grow and sell cannabis, allowing it to put into effect a plan that's been years in the making.
Founded by four partners in 2016, CMC applied to for a licence to cultivate, process, and sell for medical processes in March 2017, in the lead up to legalization.
"Back in those days, it was a very extensive 700-page document that you had to submit to Health Canada with all your security plan and your building plans," said Andrew Ellott, who owns the 22-bay building in the Pemberton industrial park that the company will operate out of.
(The licence CMC was granted allows the company to sell both to the medical and recreational markets under the federal government's cannabis regulation framework, added Ellott.)
CMC intends to cultivate, process and sell a full suite of cannabis products, including dried and trimmed cannabis and oils, for both medical and recreational use.
In early 2018, the company put together an investor group, raising a little more than $5 million, and then went onto implement Phase 1 of its business plan April 2018.
"At some point during the process, you've got to jump off the cliff, if you like, and spend the money to build a building even without the licence," said Ellott.
CMC has built a 17,000-square-foot (1,579-square-metre) operation, which includes offices, a reception, changing rooms, a genetics room and a shipping and receiving area.
"We have about another third of the building that is currently under demolition ready for Phase 2," added Ellott.
In a release, CMC said it is preparing a second push to raise private capital in early 2020 to fully fund Phase 2 construction. Its aim is to build a 50,000-square-foot (4,645-square-metre) facility operating at full capacity in 2021. The facility foresees 14 grow rooms and an oil extraction and processing lab.
Upon completion, CMC anticipates producing around 4 million grams of ultra-premium certified organic cannabis.
Ellott said that legalization has led to "mass production" of cannabis, and that CMC is seeking to take a smaller-scale approach, producing organic certified "craft cannabis."
"Watching what's happening since legalization in 2018, it's been a little bit disappointing to see, mass production techniques, people doing a million-, 2-million-square-foot facilities and maybe losing sight of what we're really trying to do here, [which is] to grow quality cannabis," said Ellott, adding that the company currently has eight employees, with six of them based in Pemberton.
Next summer, that will likely rise to about 20 employees.
"We've created what I would consider very well-paid jobs close to where people [live]," he said.
The Whistler Medical Marijuana Corporation, which sold to Edmonton-based Aurora Cannabis in January 2019 in a deal worth $175 million, also operates a facility in the industrial park.
The industrial park is zoned for cannabis production, said Village of Pemberton (VOP) Mayor Mike Richman, but VOP council has placed a moratorium on further licences out of concerns about water consumption.
"We purchase our water in the industrial park [from the] Lil'wat Nation, and we're currently finishing up a water agreement and usage agreement," he said.
"Cannabis production can use a fair bit of water, so we put a moratorium [on new production facilities] until we've completed the negotiation with Lil'wat."
The Pemberton industrial park has gained traction in recent years, with an increasingly diverse selection of businesses, following the trajectory of Whistler's Function Junction neighbourhood.
Richman said it is important to have a diverse array of businesses in the area in the longterm.
"We really want to encourage a lot of different businesses to be able to come into the park and set up," he said.
This story originally incorrectly stated that Coast Mountain Cannabis "put together an investor group, raising a little more than $500 million." That number is actually $5 million. Pique regrets the error.
