When travellers cut through British Columbia‘s Prince George Airport this summer, Owen Ritz and Reed Horton envision them browsing and buying more than duty-free treats and baubles.
The American roommates-turned-business partners hope passengers will stop by Copilot, a cannabis store they’re seeking approvals to open and believe will be the world’s first airport pot shop.
“Our goal from day one has been to create a differentiated retail experience that stands out from any store you might see downtown,” said Ritz.
Airport stores are nothing new for most retailers, but cannabis shops are seldom, if ever, seen at aviation hubs, so Copilot is a sign of the new territory pot stores are eager to break into.
In recent months, they’ve cropped up at malls, gas station plazas and beside breweries. Some like B.C. pot retailer Seed and Stone are even planning to open virtual dispensaries in the metaverse – an immersive and emerging digital world.
The push to get into these spaces comes more than three years after Canada legalized recreational cannabis. Since then, pot shops have speckled many cities – Ontario alone had 1,115 stores last September – and clustered so heavily in areas like Toronto‘s Queen Street that some are calling for legislation to dictate how close to each other stores can be.
The proximity is amping up competition among stores and has some observers predicting closures are on their way as entrepreneurs realize owning a pot shop isn’t a guaranteed money-maker, when you’re in a crowded market.
“The whole industry completely misunderstood what would happen because they thought the only barrier is legalization and once we’re legal, people will just buy,” said Joanne McNeish, a Ryerson University professor specializing in marketing.
But breaking into airports and malls could curtail some of the disappointment by helping companies stand out from other brands with a store on every street corner and by catering to time conscious customers.
“For a user, it could make it that much more convenient,” said McNeish.
She believes these locations also help destigmatize cannabis for people who still see the substance as a stoner pastime or are intimidated by marijuana culture and terminology.
“If they’re walking around Sherway Gardens and they stumbled upon it, maybe it’ll be slightly less overbearing to take a step in,” said Justin Farbstein, Tokyo Smoke’s vice-president of business development.
“It could give a safer, more approachable feel.”
That locale was part of why Canopy brought Tokyo Smoke cannabis shops to malls through a partnership with Edmonton Oilers owner, the Katz Group.
Now, there are Tokyo Smoke stores across eight shopping centres, including the Eaton Centre in Toronto, the Rideau Centre in Ottawa and Devonshire Mall in Windsor. At least another three are on their way.
In the few months they’ve been open, Farbstein noticed purchases have a “slight skew” toward edibles and drinks, but hasn’t seen any particular demographic flock to the store more than others.
The company also has stores in a Scarborough gas station plaza and beside Cool Beer Brewing Co. in Toronto.
In an effort to stand out, High Tide Inc. is also moving beyond busy streets.
“On Queen Street, you’ve got a cluster of stores and they’re all competing with each other heavily and there’s just no unique edge that any retailer has,” said chief executive Raj Grover.
He’s been targeting large shopping areas with anchor tenants like grocers, liquor stores or Costco because Hide Tide can typically score cannabis exclusivity there, but he’s also delving into malls by opening Canna Cabana shops at Winnipeg‘s St. Vital Centre and Alberta‘s Prairie Mall.
Those locations will resemble Hide Tide’s 113 stores, but leverage more digital kiosks and lockers to speed up browsing, ordering and pickup.
Their locations will also be chosen to avoid enticing children.
“Mall management is sometimes not too excited about locating a cannabis store where there’s a food court or where families get together, so it can be a little bit more challenging than locating on the streets,” Grover said.
The trickiest part of opening mall locations, said Farbstein, is ensuring security cameras trace every part of the journey cannabis deliveries make from the loading dock to the store shelf – a requirement for all pot shops.
At the airport, there are even more challenges because travellers cannot board flights departing Canada with cannabis. Copilot plans to ask customers where they are headed and remind people they can’t fly internationally with pot.
Several airlines don’t feel those measures are enough and are worried an airport store would encourage pre-flight and on-board cannabis consumption. Air Canada and WestJet have urged Prince George’s city council not to permit airport pot shops.
Horton called their concerns “really valid” and said Copilot had “productive” discussions with airlines to ensure they’re able to work together.
“We want to improve passenger experiences, not make it worse,” he said.
But even Grover has hesitations about airport pot shops.
OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed a bid by the Prince Edward Island Potato Board to overturn a 2021 decision by the federal agriculture minister to declare the entire province as “a place infested with potato wart.”
That order prohibited the export of seed potatoes from the Island to prevent the spread of the soil-borne fungus, which deforms potatoes and makes them impossible to sell.
The board had argued in Federal Court that the decision was unreasonable because there was insufficient evidence to establish that P.E.I. was infested with the fungus.
In April 2023, the Federal Court dismissed the board’s application for a judicial review, saying the order was reasonable because the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said regulatory measures had failed to prevent the transmission of potato wart to unregulated fields.
On Tuesday, the Appeal Court dismissed the board’s appeal, saying the lower court had selected the correct reasonableness standard to review the minister’s order.
As well, it found the lower court was correct in accepting the minister’s view that the province was “infested” because the department had detected potato wart on 35 occasions in P.E.I.’s three counties since 2000.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick health officials are urging parents to get their children vaccinated against measles after the number of cases of the disease in a recent outbreak has more than doubled since Friday.
Sean Hatchard, spokesman for the Health Department, says measles cases in the Fredericton and the upper Saint John River Valley area have risen from five on Friday to 12 as of Tuesday morning.
Hatchard says other suspected cases are under investigation, but he did not say how and where the outbreak of the disease began.
He says data from the 2023-24 school year show that about 10 per cent of students were not completely immunized against the disease.
In response to the outbreak, Horizon Health Network is hosting measles vaccine clinics on Wednesday and Friday.
The measles virus is transmitted through the air or by direct contact with nasal or throat secretions of an infected person, and can be more severe in adults and infants.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump is refusing to say how he voted on Florida’s abortion measure — and getting testy about it.
The former president was asked twice after casting his ballot in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday about a question that the state’s voters are considering. If approved, it would prevent state lawmakers from passing any law that penalizes, prohibits, delays or restricts abortion until fetal viability — which doctors say is sometime after 21 weeks.
If it’s rejected, the state’s restrictive six-week abortion law would stand.
The first time he was asked, Trump avoided answering. He said instead of the issue that he did “a great job bringing it back to the states.” That was a reference to the former president having appointed three conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who helped overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 2022.
Pressed a second time, Trump snapped at a reporter, saying “you should stop talking about it.”
Trump had previously indicated that he would back the measure — but then changed his mind and said he would vote against it.
In August, Trump said he thought Florida’s ban was a mistake, saying on Fox News Channel, “I think six weeks, you need more time.” But then he said, “at the same time, the Democrats are radical” while repeating false claims he has frequently made about late-term abortions.
In addition to Florida, voters in eight other states are deciding whether their state constitutions should guarantee a right to abortion, weighing ballot measures that are expected to spur turnout for a range of crucial races.
Passing certain amendments in Arizona, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota likely would lead to undoing bans or restrictions that currently block varying levels of abortion access to more than 7 million women of childbearing age who live in those states.
