Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario has released the names of 25 winners of a lottery held to determine who may apply for the province's first cannabis retail licences.
The winners, selected from 17,000 applicants, were drawn at 3:16 p.m. Friday and released this evening.
They are largely entrepreneurs, not corporations.
No further information was provided about the winners, including the communities in which they are based.
Winners now have five business days to submit formal applications with a $50,000 letter of credit and a $6,000 non-refundable fee.
Ontario's first private cannabis stores are expected to open Apr. 1
Until then, recreational cannabis can only be legally sold through the province's government-operated website. The winners were awarded based on five census divisions. Collingwood is in the East Region, which received four licences out of the five maximum permitted by the Ontario government.
East region includes Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry; Prescott and Russell; Ottawa; Leeds and Grenville; Lanark; Frontenac; Lennox and Addington; Hastings; Prince Edward; Northumberland; Peterborough; Kawartha Lakes; Simcoe; Muskoka; Haliburton; and Renfrew.
Toronto region encompasses the city of Toronto. Five licences were awarded to cannabis retailers in that region.
GTA Region was given six licences for stores in the Durham, York, Peel, and Halton area.
North region includes Nipissing, Parry Sound, Sudbury, Greater Sudbury, Timiskaming, Cochrane, Algoma, Thunder Bay, Rainy River, and Kenora. There were two licences granted for the north region.
West region includes Dufferin, Wellington, Hamilton, Niagara, Haldimand-Norfolk, Brant, Waterloo, Perth, Oxford, Elgin, Chatham-Kent, Essex, Lambton, Middlesex, Huron, Bruce, Grey, and Manitoulin. There were seven licences granted in the west region.
Winners in the province are:
- Daniel Telio (east region)
- Brandon Iong (east region)
- Patterson and Lavoie (east region)
- Karan Someshwar (east region)
- Heather Conlon (Toronto region)
- Seyedarash Seyedameri (Toronto region)
- Colin Campbell (Toronto region)
- Dana Michele Kendal (Toronto region)
- Hunny Gawri (Toronto region)
- Guruveer Singh Sangha (Greater Toronto Area region)
- David Nguyen (Greater Toronto Area region)
- Tripsetter Inc. (Greater Toronto Area region)
- Alexander Altman (Greater Toronto Area region)
- CGS Foods Inc. (Greater Toronto Area region)
- Gary Hatt (Greater Toronto Area region)
- Steven Fry (west region)
- Lisa A Bigioni (west region)
- Ranjit basra (west region)
- 2674253 Ontario Inc. (west region)
- Santino J Coppolino (west region)
- Christopher Comrie (west region)
- The Niagara Herbalist (west region)
- Anton Lucic (north region)
- Saturninus Partners (north region)