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Advocates Say Indigenous Entrepreneurs in Canada Are Excluded by Cannabis Act

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Following an assessment of the country’s statistics, the Assembly of First Nations has extended a call to Canada’s federal government to remove regulatory barriers it says work to exclude Indigenous entrepreneurs from participation in the newly legal, ever-growing adult-use cannabis industry.

The advocacy group asserted this notion through its 2021 “Federal Priorities” document, alongside an interview with MJBizDaily.

The group shared data with MJBizDaily that shows Indigenous-owned or -affiliated cannabis businesses account for less than five percent of all federal license holders, which is approximately the same percentage of Canadian people who identify as Aboriginal people. However, the use of the term “affiliated” could also include any business with Indigenous investors, which means that the percentage of explicitly, Indigenous-owned businesses is likely lower than the five percent figure.

While Canada boasts 3,1000 reservations, only 0.5 percent of the approximately 750 total licensees in the country are located within these reservations. Of those license holders, about three-dozen identified as Indigenous-owned or -affiliated, according to Health Canada data.

The Indigenous license types included 20 standard license holders, 14 micro license holders, two nursery license holders and one license exclusively for medical cannabis.

It’s worth noting that the number has nearly doubled since last year, with just 19 Indigenous cannabis companies reported, but Indigenous cannabis professionals still maintain that there is more work to be done.

Terry Teegee, chair of the Chief’s Committee on Cannabis for the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), spoke more about the report in an interview with MJBizDaily, claiming the Cannabis Act as it currently stands is failing and that these statistics are indicative of the structural barriers First Nations entrepreneurs are up against in the country’s booming industry.

“Where we’re failing is the fact that, far too often, First Nations jurisdiction and ability to license and control cannabis, or anything in our territory, is not recognized,” Teegee said.

The Cannabis Act Teegee referenced worked to establish the legal foundation that ushered in Canada’s new cannabis industry, giving distribution and sales authority to provinces and territories while maintaining a federal hold on cultivation regulations. The Cannabis Act does not provide Canada’s First Nations the ability to control production or retail on a reservation, which Teegee said must change.

“Quite obviously that was missed in terms of the development of the Cannabis Act,” he asserted. If the language is added, it would recognize First Nations’ inherent rights, treaty rights and ability to self-govern under terms of self-determination and sovereignty, Teegee said.

The report was released at an opportune time, as the law is up for review later this year and would allow for amendments to the current Cannabis Act. The law’s impact on Indigenous people and communities is required to be included in the review process.

The term “social equity” is often used in relation to new cannabis policy in the neighboring United States, urging lawmakers to take minority entrepreneurs and those affected by the War on Drugs into consideration when enacting reform policy.

Health Canada and Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (MCK) notably made history last month, when MCK signed a Memorandum of Understanding which would allow the Council to establish its own laws and regulations for cannabis sale and product within their territory. It was the first agreement of its kind between a First Nation and the Canadian government.

The dual-licensing program was considered a potential blueprint for other First Nations looking to enter the regulated industry and to host the production and cultivation of their cannabis, though many argue that this should have been part of the big-picture, federal legislation from the start.

Joseph Quesnel, senior research associate at the pro-business think tank Frontier Centre for Public Policy in Nova Scotia, echoed the sentiment of Indigenous cannabis professionals to MJBizDaily, calling the gap a reconciliation failure on the government’s part.

“… They saw this coming,” Quesnel said. “We were talking about cannabis legalization for a long time. If this government wanted to claim they were about Indigenous economic reconciliation, this is very much not the way to go about it.”