O’LEARY, P.E.I. - Unless they are prepared to travel out of their region, West Prince residents might miss out on the early buzz when cannabis use becomes legal in Canada on October 17.
Eric Gavin, Mayor of O’Leary, acknowledged Monday that the building his town is putting up to house the provincial government’s West Prince corporate store will not be ready on time.
“They said they are behind,” he said in relaying information from their general contractor on the project.
Gavin said the town had expectations of starting to collect rent from the provincial government on the building this week, but he said drywall is just now being installed. Gavin said the town can start charging penalties against the contractor for missing the completion deadline later this week.
Gavin’s expecting the store’s parking lot to be paved this week.
Once the contractor finishes construction, the provincial government will be sending in its contractor to set up the store.
When the provincial government awarded the West Prince cannabis store to O’Leary, the town was intending to have the store as part of a strip mall it was planning. When those plans fell through, the town went back to the drawing board to come up with plans for a new stand-alone store.
Gavin said he’d be doubtful the West Prince corporate store will be serving customers before the first week of November. The P.E.I. Cannabis Management Corporation, however, is taking a more cautious approach.
In an emailed response to a Journal Pioneer enquiry, Zach Currie, the Director of Cannabis Operations for the P.E.I. Cannabis Corporation, wrote, “The Charlottetown, Summerside and Montague retail stores are expected to open at 9 am on October 17. The O'Leary retail store opening has been delayed due to some unexpected challenges with the base building. We continue to work diligently with all stakeholders involved with the O'Leary store construction, and pending no further delays, we anticipate this location will open before the new year.”
The O’Leary store will have a staff of eight while the stores in Montague, Summerside and Charlottetown are expected to have staffs of 10, 12 and 16 respectively.
The corporation provided the store hours for each location. Charlottetown, Montague and Summerside stores will be open 9 am to 10 pm Monday to Saturday and noon to 5 pm on Sundays while store hours in O’Leary have been set at 9 am to 6 pm Monday to Wednesday; 9 am to 9 pm Thursday and Friday, 9 am to 10 pm on Saturday and noon to 5 pm on Sundays.
