Resource companies hoping to mine weed

Posted: Saturday, May 31, 2014 12:15 am Don Plant Penticton Herald
Days after he inked a deal to create a large medical-marijuana facility in Ontario, Chris Bunka is taking a hard look at the prospect of installing a similar plant in the Okanagan. As CEO of Lexaria Corporation in Kelowna, Bunka has managed an oilfield in the state of Mississippi for eight years. He’s slowly divesting the company’s oil assets to finance two potential marijuana plants in Ontario. Kelowna city council adopted bylaws this week that permit growing medical marijuana on industrial land. Bunka is suddenly interested in building a factory in his own neck of the woods. “We’d love to be here. I’m going to look at this,” he said. “Look, we’ve got an office in this town. I would very much love to have an operation here. That to me is the logjam that needed to be cleared.” The federal government has legislated heavy rules that govern the production and sale of medical marijuana. The Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations demand strict standards for on-site security and criminal background checks. The new system allows people with prescriptions to buy only from large producers licensed by Health Canada. The federal agency has approved 13 licences — five of them in B.C. — but hundreds of applicants are scrambling for their own piece of the green rush. They’re buying properties and fixing up buildings on speculation that Health Canada will choose them as licensees. (more)

The agency has already licensed In the Zone Produce to grow and sell medical marijuana from its indoor farm in the Spallumcheen area near Armstrong. Its website says it will start registering clients at the end of June and begin sales in mid-July.The downside of any Okanagan operation would be minimal, said Bunka — no carbon emissions, no greenhouse gases, no noise or heavy truck traffic. The economic spinoffs, he believes, would be large. One Ontario facility could easily have 50 full-time employees at full production.