North Bay MPP on cap elimination for private cannabis stores

North Bay — As you may have heard on Friday, the Ford government is eliminating the cap on the number of private cannabis stores across the province, and with no more lottery licensing system.

Applications will now be accepted and store licenses will be granted at a rate of 20 a month.

Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli says this is what the government wanted to do all along, but claims restrictions by Ottawa caused problems with supply.

"Now that we're confident that the federal government finally got their act together and has a supply stream, we can go to plan A which was always to open the market," said Fedeli.

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario will begin accepting applications under the new guidelines in January, followed by store authorization applications in March.