THUNDER BAY – Thunder Bay residents will likely have a long drive to visit the closest pot shop in Ontario.
Thunder Bay for the time being will be shut out of having a private brick and mortar storefront, with both of the retail licences designated for Northern Ontario going to Sudbury.
The Progressive Conservative provincial government had instituted an initial limit on the number of private retail storefronts allowed to open on April 1 at 25 across Ontario, with only two of those in Northern Ontario.
Legal cannabis had only been available for purchase in the province online through The Ontario Cannabis Store website since it was legalized across the country last October.
The province had conducted a lottery process that was completed earlier this year to determine who could apply to establish a storefront.
On the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario website, which lists the applications currently under review, two locations have been listed for Sudbury.
Alcohol and Gaming Commission spokesperson Raymond Kahnert confirmed the two north region retail store authorizations are in Sudbury.
The first, for a store named Highlife, recently completed the 15-day public comment period. For the second applicant, called Canna Cabana, the public comment deadline is March 22.
The shops were only allowed to be located in cities with a population of more than 50,000 where the municipality had chosen to allow them. That left Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and North Bay as the only four cities within Northern Ontario to meet that criteria.
Thunder Bay city council in January had voted to opt in to allowing private cannabis storefronts within the city.
