NIPAWIN — The operator of the retail cannabis store in Nipawin is a B.C.-based company that’s focused on producing and vending a high-end product.
GreenTec Holdings will grow cannabis in indoor facilities in B.C. and Alberta. There are plans to have some of them certified as organic.
“I think that gives us a unique focus. We’re not one of the big players, we’re kind of a small B.C. craft player,” said Norton Singhavon, GreenTec’s Chair and CEO. “We cultivate our own products, we test our own products, we extract our own products. We control the supply chain from A to Z and quality assurance is there at all points.”
GreenTec, together with the Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs, applied for permits for all 32 communities in the province that will have one or more retail cannabis stores. The winners were then selected at random through a lottery. The only location GreenTec won was Nipawin.
Singhavon said he knows Nipawin is a trade hub in the region and there’s some money in the town to buy his products.
“We’re definitely looking forward to it,” he said. “We’re proud to have established a foothold in the Saskatchewan retail cannabis market.”
GreenTec has already reached out to the town. It will be meeting with the planning department to talk about how they plan to regulate the locations of cannabis stores. Then they’ll identify a property to lease or purchase.
The company has to finalize the permit with the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority, figure out logistics between Kelowna, B.C. and Nipawin, and figure out how the online aspect of their sales will work.
“We’re still trying to get some clarity with SGLA about our e-commerce aspect, if it has to be tied in on the same property or if it can an off-site warehouse,” Singhavon said.
Depending on how online sales work, GreenTec is interested in exploring cultivation sites in Saskatchewan in the future.
