Marijuana greenhouses in Weedon:
a 200 million imperiled project
Its promoters have been shining for months investments of 200 million, with 400 jobs and a partnership with the University of Sherbrooke. But one year after the groundbreaking symbolic earthquake, the MYM Nutraceuticals marijuana grow house project in Weedon appears to have been abandoned due to a lack of a production permit issued by Health Canada.
The mayor of the small Estrie municipality asks Ottawa for an explanation.
"It's been six months since we were given the same answer: the granting of the license depends on the security investigation that is under way," laments the mayor of the municipality of 2700 inhabitants, Richard Tanguay. It is anomalous for a company to start a project of this magnitude and for Ottawa not to be able to give us any specific timeline on the progress of the file. "
In March 2018, the CEO of MYM Nutraceuticals, Robert Gielt, announced the construction of "Phase I" of what would become "the largest [cannabis] greenhouses in the world". After sinking the concrete slabs and erecting the structures of the future greenhouses, the Vancouver company stopped the work. Security guards stopped monitoring the 1.5-million-square-foot site, and Project Communications Manager Daniel Nadeau
has not represented the company since December, La Tribune reported recently.
Deficit of 22 million
In its latest quarterly results published in May, the management of the listed company reported an operating deficit of nearly 22 million and drew a gloomy statement of the situation: "Nothing ensures that the company and its subsidiaries will obtain a medicinal marijuana permit and there are no known timelines for assessing when the process will have been successful. "
MYM Nutraceuticals estimates it needs $ 10 million to $ 15 million to complete construction of the first phase, but acknowledges that it has "not yet received funding for the Weedon facility." The company is also slow to obtain a production license
for a 10,000-square-foot greenhouse it built in Laval last year.
In 2018, La Presse reported that a MYM consultant responsible for filling out the license application forms pleaded guilty in 1993 to charges of putting counterfeit money into circulation and having a card of stolen or falsified credit, which earned him four prison terms totaling
more than 60 days. This consultant is no longer a partner of the company.
Lack of transparency
The Mayor of Weedon blames Health Canada for lack of transparency in its licensing process. His municipality passed a resolution formally asking the Trudeau government to make public "the deadline for the processing of applications for licenses related to cannabis in Quebec".The offices of Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor and Minister of
Organized Crime Reduction Bill Blair did not want to comment on the case yesterday.
The municipality of Weedon had to stop 3.5 million to have a road paved to the future plant. "I am not the City of Montreal. To find the money for this type of work, I have to plan ahead in advance. But that's not possible, because nowhere in Health Canada's program is there a clear timeline for license applications. We think that as government partners, we deserve to be better informed, "said Tanguay.
The mayor of the small Estrie municipality asks Ottawa for an explanation.
"It's been six months since we were given the same answer: the granting of the license depends on the security investigation that is under way," laments the mayor of the municipality of 2700 inhabitants, Richard Tanguay. It is anomalous for a company to start a project of this magnitude and for Ottawa not to be able to give us any specific timeline on the progress of the file. "
In March 2018, the CEO of MYM Nutraceuticals, Robert Gielt, announced the construction of "Phase I" of what would become "the largest [cannabis] greenhouses in the world". After sinking the concrete slabs and erecting the structures of the future greenhouses, the Vancouver company stopped the work. Security guards stopped monitoring the 1.5-million-square-foot site, and Project Communications Manager Daniel Nadeau
has not represented the company since December, La Tribune reported recently.
Deficit of 22 million
In its latest quarterly results published in May, the management of the listed company reported an operating deficit of nearly 22 million and drew a gloomy statement of the situation: "Nothing ensures that the company and its subsidiaries will obtain a medicinal marijuana permit and there are no known timelines for assessing when the process will have been successful. "
MYM Nutraceuticals estimates it needs $ 10 million to $ 15 million to complete construction of the first phase, but acknowledges that it has "not yet received funding for the Weedon facility." The company is also slow to obtain a production license
for a 10,000-square-foot greenhouse it built in Laval last year.
In 2018, La Presse reported that a MYM consultant responsible for filling out the license application forms pleaded guilty in 1993 to charges of putting counterfeit money into circulation and having a card of stolen or falsified credit, which earned him four prison terms totaling
more than 60 days. This consultant is no longer a partner of the company.
Lack of transparency
The Mayor of Weedon blames Health Canada for lack of transparency in its licensing process. His municipality passed a resolution formally asking the Trudeau government to make public "the deadline for the processing of applications for licenses related to cannabis in Quebec".The offices of Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor and Minister of
Organized Crime Reduction Bill Blair did not want to comment on the case yesterday.
The municipality of Weedon had to stop 3.5 million to have a road paved to the future plant. "I am not the City of Montreal. To find the money for this type of work, I have to plan ahead in advance. But that's not possible, because nowhere in Health Canada's program is there a clear timeline for license applications. We think that as government partners, we deserve to be better informed, "said Tanguay.
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