New Nova Scotia cannabis regulations support community-run stores in Mi’kmaw communities

April 4, 2025 | David Brown

New regulations introduced in Nova Scotia will allow Mi’kmaw communities to open legal, community-owned cannabis retail stores on reserve by agreement with the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation (NSLC).

The provincial government made the announcement on April 4. The new regulations will allow a band, or a band-owned corporation, to become an authorized seller within their community through an agreement with NSLC to set up a legal retail store.

The NSLC remains the only authorized cannabis seller in Nova Scotia. Any cannabis stores in Mi’kmaw communities will sell cannabis purchased through the NSLC. The NSLC currently operates the only 50 legal cannabis stores in the province. The provincial government says it currently has no plans to authorize other third-party cannabis sellers.

Eight First Nations in Nova Scotia are part of The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmak. “Mi’kmaq” refers to the Indigenous people of the Atlantic Provinces of Canada. “Mi’kmaw” is the singular form, which can also be used as an adjective, as in “Mi’kmaw communities.” Representatives from these communities were not immediately available for comment as of press time.

There is currently one on-reserve NSLC location that sells cannabis in Nova Scotia; it opened in Eskasoni in Cape Breton in September 2022.

“We’ve spoken with Mi’kmaw leaders across the province, and they have raised concerns about the sale of illegal cannabis in their communities,” said Timothy Halman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, on behalf of John Lohr, Minister of Finance and Treasury Board. “These changes will allow bands to open a legal store for those who wish to buy and use cannabis.”

The regulations require cannabis to be retailed in a socially responsible manner. Authorized Mi’kmaw sellers must:

sell cannabis in its original package
sell no more than 30 grams of dried cannabis, or the equivalent, in one transaction
only sell at the authorized, permanent location
allow no sampling on the premises
display a certificate issued by the NSLC indicating they are authorized cannabis sellers
follow the NSLC’s responsible retail training and guidelines, ensuring cannabis products aren’t sold to minors or those who are impaired
follow all Health Canada requirements.

Nova Scotia sold $32.6 million worth of cannabis in Q2 2024

A man from the Millbrook First Nation recently received a conditional sentence from a Nova Scotia court in relation to his operation of an unlicensed cannabis store in his community, which was operated against the wishes of some in the community. Millbrook is a Mi’kmaq First Nation band government.

The court rejected the owner’s argument that he could operate on First Nations land without a provincial licence.

In a similar ruling posted in 2024, the same judge also rejected efforts to have charges thrown out related to the three raids of unlicensed cannabis stores in the province in 2021.

In 2019, Millbrook First Nations Chief Bob Gloade also said that such businesses are not supported by treaty rights.

“There is no treaty right protecting them in regards to selling, growing or distribution of cannabis whatsoever,” Gloade said at the time. “It’s not a treaty or an aboriginal right because it does not state that anywhere. Our treaty rights basically focus around hunting and gathering not growing and distribution,” he said. “Individuals feel that it is a right and they’re extending it beyond the meaning of how the treaties are laid out in black and white and it puts us in a difficult situation.”

Since then, the Chief has changed his tune.

“Since that time, council has debated and discussed how to advance a cannabis strategy that is respectful of, and a benefit to, all community members, carried out in a way that prioritizes community sovereignty, safety, and well-being of everyone,” Gloade said in 2021.

“This is consistent with our inherent right to govern and our fiduciary duty to exercise jurisdiction over matters such as the community’s health and safety as a whole,” he said. “We continue to discuss the development of a cannabis regime and measures necessary for the Millbrook First Nation residents’ safety and enjoyment of life.”

Last year, the Assembly of First Nations called on federal politicians to “recognize First Nations jurisdiction over cannabis and remove regulatory barriers that exclude First Nations from the marketplace.” Thus far, federal and provincial governments have held that Indigenous communities can harmonize their regulations with Canadian law, and governments have attempted (to varying degrees of success) to help with that process.

Millbrook First Nation finds itself in just such a position, and they have had a rocky relationship with the legal cannabis industry. Initially hopeful that legalization would be a source of economic opportunity for the community, in 2018, the band council invested $5 million in licensed producer Zenabis’ growing facility in Stellarton, NS, which opened in 2019 but was decommissioned in 2022, less than three years later. Financial statements show that Millbrook had lost more than $4.2 million on that investment, amidst a broader market downturn for public cannabis companies.

In 2022, Millbrook First Nation published a report following a community consultation exploring the idea of sovereign cannabis regulations, concluding that there was significant community support for “developing Millbrook laws and regulations.” A group called the Mi’kmaq Cannabis Association has also formed in the wake of the raids and has argued that “cannabis can be regulated informally by the customs and conventions of the Mi’kmaq people.”

An almost identical case in Cape Breton, where an Indigenous man was arrested for operating a dispensary on reserve land, was dropped by the crown suddenly in 2022, averting a planned constitutional challenge. “I’m kind of upset about it,” said defendant Albert Marshall. “I would have liked to have gone all the way to the end of it—right to the Supreme Court—to justify our inherent right to trade medicine, to trade plants.”

The issue of jurisdiction around cannabis laws is contentious in Canada as it relates to First Nations and Indigenous authorities. Canada’s Cannabis Act and Regulations provide the authority to regulate the sale of cannabis to provinces and territories. Many provinces, including BC, along with the federal government, have said that their respective cannabis regulations are laws of general application, meaning they apply to all areas in those jurisdictions, including Indigenous land.

In 2020, BC’s Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, Mike Farnworth, said the province does not recognize such sovereignty regarding federal and provincial cannabis regulations, but it is hesitant to enforce the law on First Nations territory out of fear of a court challenge.

Meanwhile, the New Brunswick government claims it is powerless to enforce its cannabis laws on First Nations land.

In 2023, the federal Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples called for jurisdiction over cannabis possession, sale, and distribution in Canada.