The AGCO has approved Brampton’s first private cannabis store. Ganjika House, located at 186 Main Street South, Brampton, is now open as of April 1, 2019. For any queries related to this cannabis store, please contact the AGCO directly.
Retailers are licensed and regulated by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO). The AGCO began accepting online applications for cannabis-related licences in December 2018. All applications will be posted online on the AGCO website.
Stores will be located in municipalities that have chosen to allow them and within areas that are zoned to permit retail establishments. Municipalities cannot pass a by-law to define a retail cannabis store as being different from any other type of retail store.
The Province of Ontario issued 25 licences across Ontario by April 1, 2019, with a maximum allocated to the following Regions:
- 5 retail stores in the City of Toronto
- 6 retail stores in the GTA Region - Durham; York; Peel; Halton
- 6 retail stores in the East Region - Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry; Prescott and Russell; Ottawa; Leeds and Grenville; Lanark; Frontenac; Lennox and Addington; Hastings; Prince Edward; Northumberland; Peterborough; Kawartha Lakes; Simcoe; Muskoka; Haliburton; Renfrew;
- 2 retail stores in the North Region - Nipissing; Parry Sound; Sudbury; Greater Sudbury; Timiskaming; Cochrane; Algoma; Thunder Bay; Rainy River; Kenora
- 7 retail stores in the West Region - Dufferin; Wellington; Hamilton; Niagara; Haldimand-Norfolk; Brant; Waterloo; Perth; Oxford; Elgin; Chatham-Kent; Essex; Lambton; Middlesex; Huron; Bruce; Grey; Manitoulin
Highlights on the licensing / regulation model:
- Legal retail stores will need to located away from schools at a minimum distance of 150 metres
- Retailers will not be permitted to allow anyone under the age of 19 to enter their stores
- A private cannabis retail store is authorized to be open to the public between 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. on any day
- There is no cap on the number of retail stores in communities choosing to allow them
- A market concentration limit of 75 stores per cannabis operator
A mandatory 15-day public notification period of a proposed store location will be provided to receive public input and hear concerns from local community. The AGCO Registrar may refuse to authorize the store if it is in the public interest to do so. The only areas of public interest the Registrar can consider, as defined by the regulations, are related to:
- public health and safety
- protecting youth and restricting their access to cannabis
- preventing illegal activities in relation to cannabis
Should the City choose to allow private retailers to operate in Brampton, the maps below show the 150 metre buffer around schools and the properties that are zoned to permit retail establishments.
Disclaimer:
The version of consolidated zoning information shown on the following maps is for convenience purposes only. Content provided is not an exact and/or current reproduction of the official documents. For more information and interpretation, please contact Zoning Services staff at 905-874-2090.
