Manitoba is extending its review of licences that allow some convenience stores to sell cannabis.

Earlier this year, Manitoba announced that it was pausing its “controlled access” licensing, which allowed cannabis sales in convenience stores, until October. In an announcement reported by the Canadian Press, the province is extending that moratorium for another 18 months, to December 31, 2025. 

Such controlled access licences allow for cannabis to be sold in convenience stores and gas stations that carry other non-cannabis products. According to provincial rules, businesses holding a controlled-access licence may allow young persons to enter the store, but cannabis must not be visible or accessible.

“This is a very important issue, and the province wants to make sure we get this right,” said Glen Simard, the minister responsible for the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corporation, in a written statement, as reported by the Canadian Press.

“That’s why we are extending the pause to continue our consultations.”

Some cannabis retailers in the province have, in the past, expressed concern about such licences. Melanie Bekevich, the owner of Mistik Cannabis in Winnipeg and a member of the Retail Cannabis Council of Manitoba (RCCMB), told StratCann in April that the organization had met with the Manitoba government to express their concerns with how these licences are being issued. 

When the moratorium was first announced, Edwardo Famakin, a spokesperson for Manitoba cannabis producer WOWKPOW, told StratCann that he and his partners were “blindsided” by the announcement as they were in the final stages of receiving approval for an agreement with Manitoba retail/gas station Domo to supply the chain with their locally-produced cannabis products. 

At the same time, Raj Grover, the CEO of High Tide Cannabis, which operates several Canna Cabana cannabis stores in the province, said he had concerns that the licences were being granted in ways that may not have fit with the intention of the rule. 

“We applaud Manitoba’s new NDP government for confirming today that it will place a six-month moratorium on new controlled access cannabis retail licences,” said Grover in April. “These licences were intended to provide access to legal cannabis in rural communities without an established legal retail cannabis store; however, many of the controlled access licences were granted to convenience and grocery stores within downtown Winnipeg. We hope that the six-month review will help establish important guardrails to ensure that these licences are limited to underserviced communities only, as was originally intended.”

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