As cultivators and consumers await the legalization of recreational marijuana in Canada late summer 2018, opportunities grow for HVAC contractors.

In “A snapshot of licensed cannabis producers,” released April 26, 2018, Statistics Canada (StatsCan) reported a rapid growth of licensed medical producers.

In March 2018, there were 97 facilities nationally, more than double the number in March 2017. Production of dried cannabis products hit 80,535 kilograms in 2017, up from 35,912 in 2016 and 9,659 in 2015.

Recreational cannabis could well be legalized in Canada by July 2018. And whilst Ontario passed legislation that will regulate the lawful use, how much do we really know about the potential impact this will have on workplaces?

We spoke to Peter Straszynski, Torkin Manes LLP – presenter of HRD Canada’s upcoming webinar Cannabis in the workplace - a guide for HR professionals – who gave us his take on the impending issue.

“Employers in industries which deal with safety sensitive work, for example construction where employees are working with machinery, are concerned over the legalization and what that means in terms of tolerance,” explained Straszynski.

For all the talk about the incoming legalization of recreational cannabis, the topic of medical cannabis seems to have been lost in the haze, says one Victoria businessman.

While recreational users will be able to walk into a retail store and buy pot as easily as a bottle of beer, James Whitehead said the Health Canada mail-order system to obtain medical marijuana can be bureaucratic and confusing.

As a result, many who use cannabis for pain relief, arthritis or insomnia end up buying it from one of Victoria’s three dozen dispensaries.

The problem with that, Whitehead said, is that not all dispensary staff are qualified to give medical advice.

Investors who’d missed the marijuana party in 2017 are wondering if they should bet on Canada’s top weed producers before the potential legalization of recreational use later this year. According to some forecasts, the opportunity in Canada’s legal recreational marijuana market is huge with some experts seeing sales touching $5-12 billion in a couple of years. But not all players are positioned to take advantage of this opportunity. The biggest winners will be those that are in a position to meet that demand and that have a reliable distribution network. Let’s have a look at Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX:WEED)…

Canadians consumed more than 20 grams of marijuana per person last year, spending C$5.6 billion on the product, according to 

With just seven weeks to go before the House shuts down for the summer, Team Trudeau is poised to unveil its latest proposed overhaul of Canada’s election and political financing laws.

The new bill, which could be introduced as early as this afternoon, is expected to include several key 2015 campaign commitments, including new restrictions on how much political parties can spend between — or possibly even during — elections, as well as the establishment of an independent commission to oversee leaders’ debates and, potentially, new monitoring and enforcement measures to protect the integrity of the federal election system against foreign (or domestic) hackers.

On today’s TSX Breakouts report, there are 31 stocks on the positive breakouts list (stocks with positive price momentum), and 12 securities are on the negative breakouts list (stocks with negative price momentum).

Discussed today is an industrial stock that has not appeared on the positive breakouts list given that it is below the $200-million screening threshold.

With legal pot looming, officials are working on training tools for Canada's cops.

Pop quiz: what does 30 grams of marijuana look like?

It's not an abstract question. Under the federal government's proposed cannabis legalization plan, 30 grams of dried marijuana is the maximum a person can legally possess in a public place. Carry any more and you could be subject to fines, jail time, or both.

Policing quantities is a big shift for police officers, who are used to viewing any amount of pot as a potential red flag, said Sandy Sweet of the Canadian Police Knowledge Network, an agency that provides online training courses for police officers.

Dustin and Corey Koffler, brothers and co-founders of Green Tank Technologies Corp., have been growing their business at breakneck speed over the past year – and the pace is unlikely to slow down as cannabis legalization approaches.

One year ago, Green Tank, a Toronto-based startup that designs vaporizers for cannabis-oil producers, had its first product ready, but no employees and no sales. Today, the company serves 60 clients in four countries and has hired 16 employees, most of whom work out of a converted industrial space in the city’s west end.

If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past year, you may have heard the news that Canada is legalizing marijuana. While this may have caught your eye as a casual media consumer, it may have gone under the radar when it comes to potential for investment. Then again, perhaps it occurred to you to invest, but you thought you’d missed the boat. Well, the good news is, you haven’t! Here’s why. Marijuana stocks are set to go evergreen People have been smoking weed in Canada for decades, and as a consumable product, it’s not going anywhere anytime…