City council is paving the way for a medical marijuana facility in Barrie's south end by giving the company a bit more time to get licensed.
The Dec. 15, 2017 closing date for the sale of city-owned land for the Skytek Pharmaceuticals facility has been extended to Jan. 31, 2018.
The extension was passed on consent Monday night without discussion.
"It has to pass next week at council but at general committee it passed. We agreed to sell them the land and it looks like it will be proceeding," said Councillor Doug Shipley.
"They still have to get their approvals from the federal agencies. All we're doing is approving the land that they buy and can build on it."
Skytek Pharmaceutical wants to buy 36-48 Rawson Ave. to build a $7 million, 65,000 square foot plant.
The selling price of the approximately 5.2 acres of land is $647,250.
The building will be designed and built for the purpose of growing, processing and research and the development of medical marijuana. Orders for the product are to be filled via mail and couriered throughout Canada for patients with medical prescriptions. Retail sales through the facility are not permitted.
After initial approval of the sale of the property, the federal government announced changes to legislation regarding the licensing of medical marijuana growing facilities.
License applications were put on hold as a result.
Skytek has applied for its licensing with Health Canada for the The Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations.
'The process has been longer than expected and Skytek remains in the licensing process, and are confident that an outcome will be achieved this year,' a city report states.
"They have to go through all their security screenings which are quite stringent and all the requirements through the different provincial and federal security requirements and licensing. And then they'd be able to start their operation," said Shipley.
Skytek intends to employ approximately 120 people with a long term potential of up to 450 staff.
Shipley says other towns and municipalities already have such facilities and Barrie should hop on the trend.
"it's going to bring some jobs to Barrie. If it's going to set up somewhere it may as well be in Barrie. We'll take the jobs here."
Skytech hopes to have all the paperwork in place by the end of this year.
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