There hasn’t been much movement on the Georgian Bay Biomed site on Mountain Road at Tenth Line in Collingwood this year.
While foundation work has occurred, the president of the medical marijuana company is mum on the status of the project.
Back in April 2019, CollingwoodToday.ca reported the town had the building permit ready for Georgian Bay Biomed, but was waiting on about $1 million in charges and fees.
As of this week, the $1 million to be paid before a building permit will be issued is still unpaid, according to the Town of Collingwood.
According to Greg Miller, chief building officer with the town, a foundation-only permit was issued in 2018 for the project, and no other permits have been issued since.
The 120,000-square-foot Georgian Bay Biomed site is planned to produce medical-grade marijuana, and the website for the company advertises the use of automation and patented technology to produce a consistent product.
In November 2019, company president Tim Boosamra told CollingwoodToday.ca that the construction had been held up by another joint-venture project.
In January 2020, he said he hoped the legal paperwork part of the process would be completed within two weeks.
“(A deal) is well on its way to being signed. We’re hoping to have construction moving as of March 1,” he said at that time.
Georgian Bay Biomed’s website also advertised a second site called Georgian Pines. Last year, Boosamra said his company had first right of refusal on a parcel of land in the Collingwood area for the second location, however in January 2020 he said that facility will now be built in Calgary instead.
Multiple requests for comment sent to Boosamra this week were not returned by publication time.
UPDATE: After this story was published, Boosamra reached out to CollingwoodToday.ca to discuss the status of the Georgian Biomed project in Collingwood.
"It's our prerogative when we pay that money. We don't owe anything until we choose to exercise that (building) permit," said Boosamra. "When we went to exercise that permit, everything was shut down due to COVID, so thank God we didn't."
"We have full intention of exercising that permit when the time is right to do so. We have every intention of moving a project forward," he said.
Boosamra says the COVID-19 pandemic has played a part in the construction delay.
"We've been approached by several potential partners who want to move ahead with the project with us and we're evaluating our options at this point," he said. "We're hoping (to start construction) this summer but it will all depend on the timeline of our financier."
