Officials with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario say the store is not fully approved or approved to open however they have cleared the first two hurdles to open. The applicant for the store has been issued their Retail Operator Licence and Retail Store Authorization. Before Thunder Bay’s Tokyo Smoke store can open they must undergo a second inspection to confirm that the store is ready to sell cannabis in accordance with the Cannabis Licence Act. The inspection is scheduled for February 28, 2020.
The Memorial location for the retail store was objected to by the Thunder Bay Drug Strategy in December of 2019.
Coordinator Cynthia Olsen said at the time they objected to the location because the store would be too close to Yes Employment Services, which going against the criteria the city has set out for such a store.
She said research had shown the closer a substance retail outlet is to youth, the better the chances of normalizing and potentially increasing substance use.
A Google search for 1082 Memorial Avenue or Tokyo Smoke Thunder Bay also brings up several coming soon links and information about the future retail operation.
The AGCO updates the status of stores in Ontario online and has said that the Thunder Bay location is in progress.
The local applicant behind the store Mike Rodenburgh told our newsroom in the fall he is partnering with Rick Bohonis, who grew up in Thunder Bay.
Rodenburgh says they are almost ready to welcome their first guests, and meet the Thunder Bay community.
“We’re just putting the finishing touches on the store,” Rodenburgh adds.
Since the Ontario government first started opening up the cannabis retail industry to private business Thunder Bay has had several false starts.
A store was first planned for 1802 Victoria Avenue East in an old Mac’s Convenience Store. That project failed to get off the ground and didn’t get approval from the AGCO. Shortly after another site was proposed but this time it was on the city’s north side at 236 Red River Road. According to sources, that site was turned down because it wasn’t big enough.
The previous Liberal government had greenlit an LCBO run cannabis store at a strip mall in the Real Canadian Superstore parking lot. The election of the Ontario PC government caused that location to fall by the wayside.
