Amid ongoing pot shortage, Alberta scores more cannabis suppliers

The province’s cannabis regulator has added four more licensed marijuana producers to its stash of growers.

It’s the first tangible fruit produced from a nation-wide search by Alberta Gaming Liquor Cannabis (AGLC) to enlist more federally-sanctioned suppliers in a bid to ease a cannabis supply shortage that’s led to a moratorium on issuing new retail licences in the province.

While it brings the number of AGLC suppliers to 19, it’s not expected to see the moratorium dating back to November be lifted any time soon, said commission spokeswoman Chara Goodings.

“We’re not receiving anything from them yet, or very little, we’re not expecting product from them for a couple of months or the end of the year,” she said.

“It’s good news even though we’re still not getting enough to open new licences yet.”

Even with the new contracts, the AGLC’s experience with initial ones hasn’t been entirely positive in terms of suppliers fulfilling their supply obligations, said Goodings.

“We’re keeping our fingers crossed these new ones will deliver what they say they will,” she said, adding it’s not clear how much product the four new suppliers will add to Alberta.

For now, 75 cannabis outlets throughout the province have been sanctioned by the AGLC, 24 of them in Calgary.

That’s by far the largest number of retail outlets in any province.

The agency’s new suppliers include Broken Coast Cannabis and Tantalus Labs, both based in B.C.

Another, AgMedica Bioscience Inc., hails from Ontario while Zenabis is headquartered in New Brunswick but also has growing operations in Nova Scotia and B.C.

Product from Broken Coast has already showed up in orders made by Karen Barry’s Beltline Cannabis Calgary store.

It’s a welcome addition for a store that’s still not receiving the amount of supply they were hoping for, said Barry.

“The supply situation is still not what we’d like to see, it’s not allowing us to open for longer hours,” she said.

“We’re managing through it.”

Business, she said, is steady but is not a road to riches.

The AGLC’s Goodings said the agency has another eight suppliers expressing interest in supplying Alberta while the search goes on for even more licensed producers.

“We’re open to anybody — ‘if you’re going to meet our standards, we’ll work with you,’” she said.

“We’ll bring on as many as we can get.”

The AGLC also acts as the province’s lone legal online supplier of cannabis products.

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