The Snuneymuxw First Nation in BC is near completion of a micro cannabis facility on Vancouver Island that will add to the Nation’s retail cannabis brand, Coast Salish Cannabis, in Nanaimo. 

Built with funding from the BC Indigenous Cannabis Business Fund, the 13,000 sq. ft. facility will enable them to grow, produce, and distribute their own cannabis products, including edibles, in their own stores and across BC and Canada. 

The fund, provided through New Relationship Trust (NRT), provides non-repayable contributions to First Nation communities and Indigenous entrepreneurs in British Columbia that are pursuing opportunities in the federally and provincially regulated cannabis sector. 

The fund supports equity, diversity, and Indigenous-led participation across the cannabis value chain—from production and distribution to retail and ancillary services.

BC First Nation governments, businesses, and economic development corporations can apply for the funding as long as they have a minimum 51% Indigenous ownership of the business, proof of community engagement and First Nation government support for on-reserve projects, and have the financial capacity to contribute 25% to 60% of project costs through cash equity or financing. First Nations must also stop any and all unregulated cannabis operations before funding disbursement, if applicable.

“Snuneymuxw Nation got into the cannabis industry to generate profits for the Nation so we could provide dividends directly to the Nation for the services that our Nation provides to our members,” says Ian Simpson, the CEO of the wholly-owned corporation of the First Nation, Petroglyph Development Group (PDG). “We’ve been able to generate a lot of high quality employment opportunities and career opportunities through our retail outlets. Something like 90% of our retail employees are Nation members.”

“The NRT funding allowed us to access capital that was a lot cheaper than what was otherwise available to us and allowed us to execute on this project a lot quicker than we had initially anticipated,” he adds. 

Snuneymuxw (pronounced Snuh-NAY-mow) opened its first Coast Salish cannabis store in early 2022, following an agreement with the province in late 2021. That agreement, a Section 119 allowance, is one of a handful that the BC government signed with First Nations in the province to encourage those communities to operate under the umbrella of provincially-authorized cannabis stores and federally-licensed production. 

The province has also established a program called BC Indigenous Cannabis Product (BCICP), intended to highlight BC cannabis products from First Nations producers.

Jason Guild, operations manager for the facility, says the funding gave the Nation the chance to move forward with the project.

“For the facility, it’s given us an ability to get out of the ground and get us to where we are today,” explains Guild. “We’re currently building a 13,000 sq ft facility to house 200 meters squared of canopy space to grow cannabis. The facility will also house an area to produce our own edible line. Once this facility’s complete, on this same property, we have the ability to expand into four more micro grow buildings.”

The facility itself is housed adjacent to Coast Salish’s first retail store on Snuneymuxw reserve land on MacMillan Rd in Nanaimo, on the same property as the Snuneymuxw Gas Bar. 

The second Coast Salish Cannabis store is located near the Departure Bay Ferry in Nanaimo.

BC has signed a handful of Section 119 agreements with First Nations in the province, but only a few have moved forward with development, including Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN)’s Sugar Cane Cannabis (production) and Unity Cannabis (retail) in the northern interior of the province and Shxwhá:y Village near Chilliwack in the Lower Mainland.

Shxwhá:y Village recently announced the closure of their cannabis store, although the production facility is still operating.