Alimentation Couche-Tard keen on selling cannabis in convenience stores

A man passes by a Couche Tard convenience store in Montreal, on October 5, 2012. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

MONTREAL - Alimentation Couche-Tard is expressing interest in selling cannabis in its Quebec convenience stores.

The company has hired a lobbyist to work on ensuring it has a place in the cannabis-distribution system Quebec will eventually set up.

The province's official registry of lobbyists shows Marie-Eve Bedard began working on behalf of Couche-Tard (TSX:ATD.B) last month and will continue doing so until next May.

She will earn less than $10,000 for her work.

Bedard is a former chief of staff to ex-Quebec health minister Yves Bolduc.

Couche-Tard operates more than 2,000 stores in Canada but it is not clear whether the chain wants to sell cannabis outside of Quebec.