Atlantic Canada’s First Cannabis Nursery To Open In Moncton
MONCTON – Cannabis cultivator Rod Wilson, clear of three tiers of regulatory hurdles, is poised to bring Atlantic Canada’s first licensed cannabis nursery to the Moncton Business Park.
Wilson, owner of Hidden Harvest, received clearance from Moncton’s Planning Advisory Committee–the final go-ahead he needed to begin work on a new nursery at 555 Edinburgh Dr.–on Oct. 27.
Although Wilson is the first cannabis nursery owner east of Saskatchewan to get approval from Health Canada to launch, the process from the company’s 2018 conception to retrofitting its new 1,500-square-foot home was arduous.
Comparing entering the cannabis industry to assembling a single-coloured jigsaw puzzle, Wilson told Huddle.
“There are a lot of obstacles to climb over and hoops to jump through at all levels – federal, provincial and municipal. Between that, taxes, and the red tape and regulations you have to comply with, it can be daunting,” he said.
Red Tape
Wilson received federal approval to grow cannabis in March 2020, but hit a snag when he received a directive letter from the province telling him to shut down Hidden Harvest’s original home on a five-acre plot of agricultural land in Lakeville, N.B.
The problem, the letter said, was cannabis can only be cultivated on industrial lands. It referred to a change in the province’s cannabis regulations from 2019 that forbid indoor cannabis production on agricultural land.
As a nursery, Hidden Harvest only produces clones (cuttings from living plants that are grown into their own plants) and seeds it sells to other businesses.
“There were some discrepancies around what was allowed from a zoning perspective… and I had to stop operations. I said, ‘Well, that makes no sense to me. A few months ago, you said it was fine.’ So I went ahead with my license – and we went to court over it,” Wilson said.
Wilson lost that fight in court and was ordered to shut his Lakeville facility down.
That facility remains open, but not in use, since it complies with federal, but not provincial or municipal, guidelines. Wilson closed operations, removing all the plants and seeds on site in June 2021 to comply with the court order. But he was still licensed by Health Canada, so he started looking for an industrial facility to open his nursery.
“For all intents and purposes, once we’re licensed with the new site, we’ll only have one site operational – but we’ll have two sites licensed,” he noted.
Wilson said he plans to wait and see what he does with the now-dormant Lakeville facility.
“Maybe in a year or two…there could be a change of heart and they allow us to do small cannabis nursery operations on agricultural land,” he said.
If the provincial regulations don’t change, Wilson will shutter the Lakeville location and continue only at 555 Edinburgh.
A New Home
It took three months in Greater Moncton’s hot real estate market; it took two months for Wilson to get municipal approval to get going on the project; and it will take about as much time to get the new home up to snuff.
Wilson told Huddle that renovations, which will cost about $100,000, are underway for the new nursery. They require the floors, ceilings, and walls to be covered with washable surfaces, such as epoxy for the floors and Trusscore PVC panels for the ceilings and walls.
“We are very busy getting in tradespeople and materials. It’s not the best time to be doing construction, with the cost of materials and scarcity of labour, but that’s the cannabis industry. You need a lot of perseverance and thick skin,” he said.
The space will also need new air filtration systems, electrical infrastructure, plumbing, steel doors and partition walls.
“You don’t need a million-square-foot greenhouse to grow clones and seeds. You can do it with 1,500 square feet, especially using racks and 12-foot ceilings,” noted Wilson.
Good Timing
Although the regulatory hurdles were a thorn in his side, Wilson said the silver lining is is that Hidden Harvest’s new location in the middle of a metropolitan area positions it to better adapt to Cannabis NB’s FarmGate retail program as it rolls out in the coming months.
The FarmGate program, announced by the Crown corporation in late August, allows licensed cannabis producers to sell their own products at their facilities.
“I thought, ‘Well, maybe this closure and restart was something beneficial for the company. We’ll see in the longer-term, but I’m upbeat and excited about where we’re going in New Brunswick with cannabis,” he said.
Wilson, who also serves as director of the New Brunswick Craft Cannabis Association, led the association’s effort to promote a retail model that would become the FarmGate program.
Depending on how good sales are through FarmGate, Wilson said Hidden Harvest’s staff of three may grow in the coming months.
“With FarmGate, we could be direct to retail. It’s an unproven market, so we don’t know how many people are growing at home, or want to buy clones to grow at home. We’re just going to have to wait and see,” he said.
Whatever the outcome, Wilson believes FarmGate will provide the greatest benefit to smaller “craft” micro-processors, micro-cultivators of cannabis, “putting out a high quality product the market is interested in.”
“It’s going to be a fascinating market for the next ten years, as we all figure out what the market’s going to do and what the customer wants.”
Specifics
Wilson said the ability to develop and breed new plants drew him to the nursery-side of the cannabis industry, noting it’s difficult to predict how many clones he’ll cultivate once the Moncton facility begins operation.
Although he can store seeds, Wilson said said he can’t do the same with clones, and has to destroy the ones he doesn’t sell.
“The only reason we’d flower a cannabis plant is to cross it with another cultivar and harvest the seeds and destroy the cannabis and cannabis plant,” he said.
Wilson, retired co-founder pharmaceutical firm Cameron Stewart LifeScience, said he found his interest in cannabis, while working in the pharmaceutical industry.
Before retiring from Cameron Stewart in 2015, Wilson’s work included consultation with Amsterdam-based Bedrocan, one of the world’s most experienced licensed medicinal cannabis producers, that began in 2013.
“That’s when I dipped my toe into the cannabis arena,” he said.
With Organigram, a previous customer “just down the road” from Hidden Harvest’s new haunt, Wilson said he hopes to rebuild a strong business relationship with it – and other Atlantic Canadian cannabis producers.
“You’ve got about ten in New Brunswick, 20 in Nova Scotia and four in P.E.I. – that’s my customer base,” he said.
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].