The results are in and Liquid Chrome says it did not make the list for the initial 25 businesses that could receive a retail operator licence to sell cannabis in the province.
Assistant store manager Eric Batters told BarrieToday late tonight that the Dunlop Street water-pipe store in downtown Barrie placed 144th on a list of close to 12,000 businesses in the region to have submitted a bid to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), which is regulating cannabis sales.
While he and the other Liquid Chrome employees are disappointed, Batters says they are clinging to optimism in hopes of being granted a licence soon.
“We’re definitely disappointed not making the first 25, but being 144 on a list of 12,000 is not that bad,” Batters said.
“This first list only represents the amount of crops available right now and as more become available, more businesses will get a permit," he added.
"It will go in order down the list and as it does, if a business has been unable to produce all the requirements needed for the permit they will be passed by; which gets us even closer to the top.”
The individuals and businesses who made the first list have five days to meet all requirements set out.
The AGCO held a lottery Friday for the first 25 licences to be issued.
Barrie falls into the East Region, which includes 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.
BarrieToday is still working to ascertain where the region’s five winning bids are located.
