WATCH: If it’s approved, a farm in Central Saanich could become one of the largest marijuana producers in Canada. Evergreen medicinal says the farm would generate $2 billion every year and create thousands of jobs. Isabelle Raghem reports.
A $500-million marijuana farm may be coming to Central Saanich.
The proposed site is the Stanhope Dairy farm on Old East Road near where Lochside Drive becomes Lochside Trail.
Owner of Evergreen Medicinal Supply Inc., Shawn Galbraith is purchasing the farm. He has Health Canada approval to build a 150,000 square-foot greenhouse in 2018.
The multi-year plan would see 21 greenhouses built on 36 acres.
“It will be one of the largest in the country,” says Galbraith.
It would be more than double the size of the Tilray pot production facility in Nanaimo, B.C.?s largest producer of medicinal marijuana.
While the property falls on the Agricultural Land Reserve, they do not need to be approved by the Agriculture land commission, because under current provincial regulations, any federally licensed medical marijuana operators do not need the approval to be on farmland.
“Do these greenhouse operations are they suitable on agricultural land or are they suitable on industrial land?” asks Green Party MLA Adam Olsen.
MLA for the area Olsen says he isn’t convinced the business plan is in the public interest.
“As the agriculture critic, I am fully I’m gonna be fully engaged in this debate in this discussion with the minister of agriculture to make sure those values are preserved for British Columbians.”
The cannabis would only be sold through licensed distributors and wouldn?t go to dispensaries.
Evergreen medicinal says the farm would generate $2 billion every year and create thousands of jobs.
Isabelle Raghem
