North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins to get cannabis stores

Ontario will get 50 more cannabis retail stores in October, including three more stores in northeastern Ontario.

On Wednesday, the province announced the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario will hold a lottery for 42 retail stores.

An additional eight stores will be located on First Nations reserves through a separate lottery.

In northeastern Ontario, the province says the licences will be awarded for stores to open in North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins. Stores will also be set up in Thunder Bay and Kenora.

Currently, there are two cannabis stores in northern Ontario, both in Sudbury. Those stores opened after the province issued 25 licences across Ontario.

Eastern Ontario will get seven new stores, the City of Toronto will get six additional stores, 13 licences will be issued for the Toronto region and western Ontario will get 11 more stores.

The province says for this phase of licence system, a new pre-qualification requirement process has been set up to streamline the process.