The Ontario Cannabis Store says Thomas Haig has been appointed interim president and chief executive.

The provincial pot distributor says Haig was chosen because of his experience in retail and logistics that he earned while in key positions at Hudson's Bay Co., Zellers, Giant Tiger and Danier.

Haig succeeds Cal Bricker, who took a leave from being the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp's senior vice-president of horse racing to lead the OCS a year ago.

The OCS says Bricker is moving on from his role at the organization, but did not specify what he has planned next.

In the coming months, Haig will oversee distribution to new retail stores.

Some Ontario growers aren’t getting the chance to reap what they sow thanks to an uptick in robberies that have — not coincidentally — arrived alongside harvest season.

Cannabis retailers are starting to prepare for the reality of no longer being the only game in town.

Sherri Graham is the general manager of 10 Cannabis Supply Co. locations in the province — one of them on Niagara Parkway in Fort Erie that started serving THC products over the counter on Aug. 24.

Since 2016, the company served medicinal customers as a telemedicine clinic, which the Fort Erie store also did prior to becoming a full-service dispensary for recreational users last month.

It has plans to open a location in Niagara Falls around mid-December, and another in St. Catharines in early 2021, said Graham.

Currently the lone licensed store in Fort Erie, a town of 30,000 people, they could have some company from the same industry nearby soon.

Some of the most active companies traded Wednesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange: 

Toronto Stock Exchange (15,817.11, down 325.78 points.)

Canadian Natural Resources (TSX:CNQ). Down 66 cents, or 2.92 per cent, to $21.94 on 11.4 million shares.

Just Energy Group Inc. (TSX:JE). Energy. Down 14 cents, or 28.87 per cent, to 34.5 cents on 10.9 million shares.

Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD.B). Industrials. Down 1.5 cents, or four per cent, to 36 cents on 8.2 million shares.

Kinross Gold Corp. (TSX:K). Materials. Down $1.24, or 10.13 per cent, to $11.00 on 7.8 million shares.

Aurora Cannabis Inc. (TSX:ACB). Health care. Down $2.83, or 29.09 per cent, to $6.90 on 7.5 million shares.

The total number of retail cannabis applications in Guelph has increased to 16, including the three stores that have already been authorized to open in the city.

There are currently three legal cannabis retailers open in Guelph: Spiritleaf on Edinburgh Road South, Q-Bud on Wyndham Street and Bud’s Cannabis Store on Stone Road West.

Bud's opened on Sept. 18 in the same plaza as McDonald's and East Side Mario's.

On Tuesday another retailer, J. Supply Co. Guelph, entered the public notice phase of the application process, which ends Oct. 6. The store is proposed for Unit 106 at 1515 Gordon St. at Lowes Road.

On Sept. 28 the public notice phase will end for Sativa Bliss Cannabis Store, which is proposed for 45 Wyndham St. N. Unit 103.

A 20-year-old man is facing charges after allegedly trying to smuggle contraband into an eastern Ontario jail.

Provincial police say it allegedly happened Thursday morning near the Quinte Detention Centre in Napanee, Ont.

OPP say they got involved after receiving reports of a suspicious man on private property near the correctional facility.

Officers arrested the man and allegedly seized a large drone, as well as what they describe as a significant quantity of tobacco and cannabis.

They allege the man planned to use the drone to smuggle the goods into the detention centre.

The man from Loyalist Township, Ont., is charged with possession for the purpose of distributing cannabis as well as a trespassing offence.

In December 2018, anticipating a cannabis retail boom in Ontario, aspiring retailer mihi held leases on 42 empty locations across the province.

Locked into contracts, the company was ready to be among the province’s first retail operators. That same month, however, citing a cannabis supply shortage, the Ontario government did something it had maintained it would not do. It capped the number of retail stores at 25, and introduced a much-maligned lottery system to allocate those licences.

A brand new facility responsible for receiving and distributing Ontario's cannabis has opened its doors in Guelph. 

While the facility has not been formally announced, Ontario Cannabis Store has already started recieving product, according to Daffyd Roderick, a spokesperson for the store. 

Roderick said the Ontario Cannabis Store sold 14 million grams of cannabis to Ontario's licensed retailers last quarter, flowing through their current distribution centre in Oakville.

The new distribution centre will be "the logistical hub that supports the cannabis sector in Ontario," Roderick said.

The OPP has confirmed that a barn fire in Ontario’s Northumberland County was housing an illicit weed grow-op.

Guelph will soon be home to the provincial distribution centre for legal cannabis.

The Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) distribution centre is relocating to Guelph from its Oakville location as the cannabis industry rapidly grows. 

“We have begun the process and we are looking to have the Guelph facility operational in early October,” said Daffyd Roderick, senior director of communications and social responsibility for OCS. 

“It will be running the exact same service. It’s just a much larger facility.”

Exact location and size of the facility were not revealed.