Ottawa’s next pot shop may land in Barrhaven – with an application for Orléans waiting in the wings – after the results of Ontario’s second cannabis retail license lottery were made public Wednesday.
The lottery, held Tuesday by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, allocated an additional 50 licenses to operate cannabis storefronts across the province, with seven up for grabs in Ottawa and eastern Ontario.
The sole draw in the National Capital Region was for a pot shop at 4335 Strandherd Dr.in Barrhaven under the name Ethan Stark. The storefront in question sits between a restaurant and mattress store, across a parking lot from a Costco and a Value Village outlet.
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Should any of the applicants drawn in the initial lottery fail to complete the process and receive a retail license, there’s also a waiting list of runners-up to take their place. This includes an application for 470 Charlemagne Blvd. in Orléans under the name Aquanta Group. That prospective shop would be attached to a Home Hardware.
In total, more than 5,000 expressions of interest were submitted to Ontario’s second cannabis lottery, 976 of which were submitted specifically for the east region.
This latest round came with higher standards to qualify for a cannabis retail license, including a requirement for applicants to prove they have the necessary capital to run the business and have secured retail space. Some 230 applications were disqualified, withdrawn or incomplete.
The prospective pot shops in Barrhaven and Orléans would join the three cannabis storefronts already operating in Ottawa: Fire & Flower on York Street; Hobo Recreational Cannabis on Bank Street; and Superette on Wellington Street West.
