{"id":9686,"date":"2018-05-15T17:59:44","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T21:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/Life-Insurance-Blog\/?guid=7242fb176d5831427fab78e49f02cbb1"},"modified":"2018-05-15T17:59:44","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T21:59:44","slug":"from-pork-to-pot-cannabis-cultivation-in-former-winnipeg-maple-leaf-meat-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2018\/05\/15\/from-pork-to-pot-cannabis-cultivation-in-former-winnipeg-maple-leaf-meat-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"From pork to pot: Cannabis cultivation in former Winnipeg Maple Leaf meat plant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WINNIPEG &#8212; A Toronto-based pot producer is taking over the former Maple Leaf Foods meat plant in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n<p>GrowForce Holdings has announced it will open its flagship cannabis cultivation facility in the city&#8217;s St. Boniface Industrial Park.<\/p>\n<p>It says the 11,000-square-metre facility will employ 150 to 200 people once it&#8217;s fully operational next year.<\/p>\n<p>GrowForce CEO Rishi Gautam says the company looked at various cities, including Edmonton and Calgary, but settled on Winnipeg because of reasonable hydro rates and a large skilled workforce.<\/p>\n<p>Gautam says the company purchased the site for about $10 million and plans to invest another $30 million to retrofit the building.<\/p>\n<p>Executive vice-president James Lowe, says the company will produce more than 900 kilograms of cannabis at the Winnipeg facility every month.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve selected this site and chosen indoor cultivation over (a) greenhouse here in Winnipeg because the energy prices allow us to do so,&#8221; Lowe said Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Its previous design lends itself to good workflow.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The main driving force with respect to cannabis is having a quality, consistent product in a climate-controlled facility,&#8221; Gautam said. &#8220;This is what this building represents.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The company has already purchased two other sites, including a licensed facility in Brampton, Ont. and a plant in Dunnville, Ont.<\/p>\n<p>Gautam said the cannabis licence GrowForce has for Brampton will make it easier to get one for its Winnipeg location.<\/p>\n<p>Recreational cannabis is expected to become legal in Canada later this year.<\/p>\n<p>(CTV Winnipeg)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WINNIPEG &mdash; A Toronto-based pot producer is taking over the former Maple Leaf Foods meat plant in Winnipeg. GrowForce Holdings has announced it will open its flagship cannabis cultivation facility in the city&rsquo;s St. Boniface Industrial Park. It says the 11,000-square-metre facility will employ 150 to 200 people once it&rsquo;s fully operational next year. GrowForce [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9686"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9689,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9686\/revisions\/9689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}