Another cannabis production company has spoken with Merritt city council about setting up shop.
CannWest is eyeing a piece of property along Voght Street, adjacent to Grimmet Street, to build a craft cannabis “campus,” where it would lease out spaces to small-scale cannabis producers.
Health Canada defines a “craft” cannabis production as any facility less than 200 square meters in size, which translates to a maximum of a nearly 2,200 square feet.
“(The property) is owned by the five Nicola Valley First Nations, it previously was the home to the Grassland Hotel. And it’s uniquely situated in Merritt in that it has a lot of strategic advantages,” CannWest CEO Sean Maloney says.
Maloney says the property could support up to 30 cannabis growers, and says the operation would bring more than 120 well-paying jobs.
“The Nicola Valley is a rich opportunity in terms of availability of labour, access to energy, clean water, infrastructure. So that makes sense to us in terms of securing the investment. We think it’s ideally suited geographically as well.”
Maloney says the next step is to meet again with city council before moving ahead with any purchase of land.
Two other companies have already had formal talks with Merritt staff and council about building larger grow-ops to produce their own products, one which had a development permit for phase one of its facility approved by council earlier this week.
(Photo: CannWest)