Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
While Canadians have endured months of rising prices for staples such as food and gas, one product consumers may have noticed little change in is retail cannabis.
Figures from Statistics Canada show that the consumer price index (CPI) for alcoholic beverages, tobacco products and recreational cannabis rose 3.5 per cent in August compared to the same month in 2021, which is lower when compared to other items monitored by the federal agency.
But on its own, the CPI for recreational cannabis has seen year-over-year declines through to August 2022, falling as much as 10.3 per cent in May.
George Smitherman, president and CEO of the Cannabis Council of Canada, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Tuesday that this deflation in price reflects an "intense competitive environment," which is translating into weak bottom lines for those in the regulated industry.
"Sadly, it's not financially sustainable," Smitherman said.
The cannabis analytics firm Headset noted this trend back in February in the United States.
More recently in August, The Canadian Press pointed to competition between retail stores as a driver behind low prices for consumers.
"In fact, the last thing you want to do is to increase prices because the black market has adjusted very, very aggressively and cannabis on the black market is cheaper," Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Monday.
But Smitherman said this is also happening at the expense of producers, whose margins are becoming thinner under the current system.
A report from the firm Ernst and Young, commissioned by the Cannabis Council of Canada, found that licensed producers in Ontario saw their share of sales revenue fall to 60.8 per cent in April 2022 from 74.2 per cent in July 2019. Over that same period, the share going to the federal and Ontario governments through excise duties rose to 37.6 per cent from 23.9 per cent.
The industry also has not been immune to supply chain issues, Smitherman said.
A cyberattack in August on a logistics partner for the Ontario Cannabis Store affected orders from retailers, while a labour dispute involving public sector workers in B.C. stopped the province's cannabis distribution centre from shipping product.
Smitherman said the examples in Ontario and B.C. show how much distribution has been monopolized, adding that suppliers are absorbing the increased costs from supply chain disruptions.
Despite the concentration of cannabis stores in certain communities, access to cannabis is not the same everywhere and in some cases, communities have chosen to opt out of the retail market.
And Smitherman said the illicit market is still being propped up by retail and online stores operating illegally. The federal government is in the process of reviewing the legalization of cannabis in Canada.
"If we don't bring more people over from the illicit market, we've failed the public health objectives of legalization," Smitherman said.
With files from CTVNews.ca Writer Natasha O'Neill, The Canadian Press and CNN
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.