As legalization of marijuana approaches in Canada, 51 cannabis retail applicants in Saskatchewan are under review.

The province will look at each application and decide whether to grant permits to legally sell marijuana to the public once it is legalized later this fall.

Allen and Denise Kilback in the R.M. of Edenwold were granted a permit. The couple owns the Happy Hour Liquor Store in Pilot Butte. They hope to make a pot shop that is similar. The Kilbacks have visited stores in the United States, and want their store to provide a world class, safe feeling.

"It’s going to be a high end dispensary. Where people are going to want to come to, and feel safe, and have excellent customer service,” Kilback said.

Flourish CAO Michael Smith appearing before Belleville’s Planning Committee, June 4, 2018 (Photo: Mary Thomas/Quinte News)

A proposal to develop a medical marijuana production facility in Belleville’s Northeast Industrial Park has passed the first hurdle.

Global Citrus Group plans to develop a 200,000 square foot facility on University Avenue, in the former Exxon Mobil building.

CAO of Flourish, Michael Smith, told Belleville’s Planning Committee Monday night this company will focus on medicine for women in terms of relieving menapausal pains and sleep-related PMS.

Smith said there would be 45 to 50 jobs before the end of 2018 and 200 jobs by 2019 in the grow and extraction facility, and an estimated $250 million business by 2020.

Impaired driving enforcement, drafting bylaws and zoning changes are just some of the concerns officials have.

As cannabis legalization looms, municipalities across the country are trying to make sure they're prepared.

Mark Phillips, the chief administrative officer for the Town of Kentville, N.S., said the provincial and federal governments have laid out their own rules around marijuana consumption, but there are still many questions about how municipalities will enforce those laws and pay for the necessary policing.

City staff will also be on the front line since citizens will be more likely to call their town councillor or city helpline with questions or concerns, not the federal government.

"It's a bit of an unknown," Phillips told CBC News.

The bill to legalize recreational marijuana in Canada is up for a crucial vote at the last step in the legislative process this week, with uncertainty looming over what the final wording of the law will be.

Senators are set to vote on Bill C-45, the Cannabis Act, at third reading in the Senate on Thursday, after studying it for six months. For those planning to follow the vote that day, rest up as it’s possible the vote could not happen until midnight. It could also be much earlier, but entirely depends on how many senators want to speak to the bill that day. Midnight would be the latest possible, as all sides agreed to vote on the bill by June 7 at the latest.

Right now every industry in Canada is asking itself the same question — how can we re-formulate our products to somehow include cannabis?

These conversations have permeated boardrooms in the lighting industry, large-scale cultivation, finance, and almost every other sector under the sun.

Food and beverage production is no different. Companies everywhere are considering the idea of throwing a little marijuana in their mixture to capitalize on the inevitable wave of excitement after cannabis gets legalized.

Tweed Grasslands, Yorkton — owned by an international company — won five of 51 pot permits in Sask.

The biggest winner of last week's lottery-style draw for permits to sell marijuana in Saskatchewan is a well-known player on the international cannabis and hemp scene. 

Tweed Grasslands, Yorkton (Canopy Growth Corporation) won five of the 51 available permits. Provided it meets necessary requirements, such as criminal record checks, the company will be able to open shops in Fort Qu'Appelle, Humboldt, Meadow Lake, Melville and the R.M. of Corman Park.

Canopy Growth Corporation, which owns Tweed, is an international cannabis and hemp company with connections to multiple brands and recognizable people in the cannabis industry, including rapper Snoop Dogg.

In just five days, Canada's Senate could alter the face of the legal cannabis industry throughout the world with its vote on bill C-45, which is best known as the Cannabis Act. If approved by the Senate, it would pave the way for Canada to become the first developed country in the world to legalize adult-use cannabis.

Four days from now, Canada's Senate is expected to make a game-changing judgment on bill C-45, which is better known as the Cannabis Act. If passed by the Senate, which is widely expected to happen, the Cannabis Act would be one step closer to becoming law and, in the process, legalizing adult-use marijuana for Canadians.

In becoming the first developed country in the world to legalize adult-use weed, Canada could be opening the door to $5 billion in added annual sales. This would come atop what the industry has already been generating from medical weed sales, as well as exports to countries where medical marijuana is legal.

The blunt truth about pot stocks

Canada's marijuana industry is taking the Field of Dreams approach. In the 1989 movie, the Iowa corn farmer played by Kevin Costner hears a whisper saying, "If you build it, he will come." The "it" referred to a baseball field in the middle of a cornfield. The "he" referred to deceased baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson, who was kicked out of major league baseball because of his alleged participation in a scheme with gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series games. This was known as the Black Sox scandal.

Leigh Coulter, president of GGS Structures, gives BNN Bloomberg a look at the inner workings of a cannabis growing facility. Marijuana producers like CannTrust and others are increasingly moving toward greenhouse facilities to keep costs down.