With the Liberal party staying in Parliament Hill as a minority government, talks of western provinces separating from Canada are growing.

The movement, known as “Wexit” or “western exit,” proposes Alberta and Saskatchewan leave the country.

Lisa Campbell, CEO of Lifford Cannabis Solutions, a licensed sales agency in Alberta, thinks the provinces splitting could allow them to capitalize on cannabis by avoiding the $1 per gram or 10 per cent federal excise tax.

“That would be seriously beneficial. It could be the new oil for Alberta and Saskatchewan,” she said in a phone interview.

Alberta leads Canada’s retail cannabis shop sales per capita and has the most stores, while Saskatchewan’s retail profits grew at the second fastest rate in August 2019.

Aurora Cannabis Inc., a Canadian licensed producer and one of the largest worldwide, also has its headquarters in Edmonton.

“It would benefit them from a tax perspective,” Campbell said, adding that her Lifford Cannabis Solutions also wouldn’t change their operations in the provinces, calling them the most progressive in Canada.

“For distribution, (Aurora is) already dealing with other provinces so it wouldn’t affect trade.”

Aurora declined to comment.

‘Leaving a country is unprecedented’

Matt Maurer, partner and vice chair of the cannabis law group, Torkin Manes LLP, calls the prairie provinces “their own entities to begin with” seeing as provinces can choose how they govern cannabis.

But he also thinks the ‘Wexit’ provinces could struggle.

“Who do they export to? You can’t export to the states, most don’t have a recreational market that allows for it … they’re doing business with a government of a new entity that didn’t exist before,” he said in a phone interview.

“The Canadian government could change the laws to put restrictions on Canadian producers exporting to Alberta and Saskatchewan.”

Maurer doesn’t think they could turn cannabis into a windfall because there aren’t enough global markets to exploit yet.

And cannabis probably wouldn’t be the first thing a new country would worry about.

“A province leaving a country is unprecedented … the new country would have all sorts of issues to work through like currency, healthcare, and basic issues,” he said.

“Finding a global cannabis market to export into wouldn’t be priority.”