Thunderchild Cultivation, located in Battleford off Highway 16, is currently awaiting its licence from Health Canada before it can plan to start operations later this year.  (submitted photo/Adam Coates) 

By Angela Brown

Cannabis cultivation

Thunderchild cannabis production facility mainly complete, awaiting licence

Apr 20, 2020 | 3:15 PM

The construction of the new cannabis production facility known as Thunderchild Cultivation, located off Highway 16 on the outskirts of Battleford, is now for the most part complete.

The facility is currently awaiting approval for its cultivation licence from Health Canada, Adam Coates, chief growth officer of Decibel Cannabis Company Inc., formerly Westleaf Inc., said. Westleaf Inc. previously merged with We Grow BC Ltd. to operate under the new name Decibel Cannabis Company Inc.

“While there is some construction still going on, it is largely complete in a lot of ways,” Coates said of the build. “There is still lots of work to be done to get it ready for actually putting plants in the ground, but it is well on its way to completion.”

This process is the next step in the project’s development stage.

“Once we receive our cultivation licence from Health Canada, that will allow us to actually bring cannabis into the building and start growing,” Coates said. “We’re super excited about getting this facility up and running, and being able to produce some great products, and get it from what was just an idea at one point to an operating reality.”

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The facility is being built on land owned by Thunderchild First Nation, which remains “a very large shareholder of the company and a huge supporter of the business,” Coates said.

He estimates the value of the project at over $30 million. The size of phase one in the build which is now mainly complete is 80,000 square feet. Whenever phase two of the project is completed in the future, it will increase the total square footage up to 130,000.

“What we are really focused on today is phase one and that first 80,000 square-foot part of the facility,” Coates said.

The facility will be used to grow cannabis plants.

“We only will be cultivating cannabis there. Growing the actual plants and packaging it, and sending it out, once we are formally licenced,” he said. “One of the main brands we will be putting into the market is called Qwest or Qwest Reserve, which is a very high-end brand that is currently sold in six different provinces across the country including Saskatchewan.”

Coates said after the facility receives its licence it will prepare to start-up production.

“We’re not anticipating to be able to actually sell products out of that facility until closer to the end of this year,” he said. “We hope to have the products produced out of that facility, sold widely across Saskatchewan as well as the rest of the country.”

Sales will be taken through ordering; people will not be able to purchase the product directly by visiting the facility.

Coates didn’t provide an estimate of the number of jobs that will be available when the facility goes into production but said the number of opportunities created is going to be significant.

“The timing of those will be largely dependent on when we get our licensing, the different phases of ramping up and starting up a facility,” he said. “We’re really looking forward to getting it open and operational.”

The company will look to employ or use the services from Thunderchild First Nation and other area First Nations as much as possible.

“That will be decided as we continue to build and ramp up,” Coates said. “I know we have done some things already as we’ve developed the project, and we’ll continue to look for opportunities to do so.”

During the COVID-19 situation, Coates said, the company has been mindful to follow extra precautions for safety for those working on the site, to adhere to the province’s health measures. He said there may have been some rescheduling of certain matters but nothing that has really caused any undue delay of any kind for the company during the period.

“Obviously this is a very challenging time for our entire country,” he said. “We’re doing everything that we can to ensure that [for] our employees, our vendors, trades and everybody associated with that, and the communities around it safety is of the utmost concern.”

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW