Manitoba has approved new legislation that will limit cannabis sales to age-restricted stores in urban areas of the province. 

First tabled in March, Bill 9, The Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Control Act (2), prohibits the issuance of any new “controlled-access” retail cannabis licences in major urban areas. Existing controlled-access retail cannabis licences are not affected by this amendment.  

Controlled access stores will continue to be allowed in rural and northern areas of Manitoba.  The Act defines major urban areas as cities, towns or other urban municipalities with a population over 5,000 people.

Manitoba legislation allows for such controlled access stores, which allow cannabis to be sold in mixed-use convenience stores where minors are permitted inside. Initially, these types of licenses were intended for more remote, rural locations, but they had begun being applied in more urban settings.

The province previously paused its controlled access licensing twice in 2024, in part due to concerns from some cannabis retailers. The pause caught some retailers off guard, as well. 

At the time of the initial pause on that type of licensing, Domo, which operates a chain of more than a dozen gas stations and convenience stores in Winnipeg, had been in plans with a Manitoba retailer to supply the chain with their locally-produced cannabis products.

Manitoba’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General Matt Wiebe, who first introduced the legislation, said during its final reading that the bill is about keeping cannabis away from young people. 

“Bill 9 is about ensuring that cannabis stays out of the hands of our youth by allowing its sale in urban areas to be limited to only age-restricted retail locations,” said Wiebe. “Numer­ous studies have suggested that early exposure to cannabis can affect brain development, cognitive function and mental health, and adolescents are parti­cularly vul­ner­able due to their developing brains.”

However, Trevor King, the MLA for Lakeside, said the bill was unfair to convenience store and restaurant owners in the province, saying such rules should be left to the municipalities, not the province.

“Where busi­nesses locate and what kind of busi­nesses are operating and selling cannabis should be decided locally by munici­palities through their own zoning and urban planning bylaws,” King said during the final debate of the bill. “This legislation will allow the minister and the Liquor Gaming Control Act to discriminate against some busi­ness owners and pick the winners and losers based on their own biases.

“Many convenience stores are owned by newer Canadians that have come to Manitoba to invest in our province, and the NDP are telling them that they will discriminate against their convenience store and restaurant operations, prohibiting them from competing in the cannabis retail busi­ness with other busi­ness owners and licensees.”

Manitoba currently lists 235 retail cannabis stores, with 137 of them located in Winnipeg.

Featured image via Google Street View

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