OneLeaf Cannabis Corp. building multi-million dollar facility in RM of Sherwood

OneLeafCannabis Corporation, a company based in Saskatchewan, has unveiled its plans to build a multi-million dollar, 44,000-square-footproduction plant in the RM of Sherwood and the City of Regina's Joint Planning Area.

The RM has conditionally approved the build and construction has already begun.

According to the site plan, the building will be in the Sherwood Industrial Park.

The facility plans to produce4,100 kilograms of pot per year and expandthat amount by 16,000 kilograms a year once its two other planned facilities are complete.

In order to keep the building secure from outside environmental interference, CEO Mike Templetonsaid the companyhad to take a few extra steps.

"For bio-security issuesin order to keep these rooms secure from outside interferenceyou basically have to builda building inside of a building, is how we've done it."

The company says the facility shouldbe finished in the summer.

OneLeafsays it isstarting as a medical marijuana facility, but it hopes to expand its business into international exporting and recreational marijuana production in the future. It expects to create more than100 jobs.

Licensing process

The facility is in the business ofmarijuana production, soits approval must come from Health Canada. In order to operate, a facility must show it has the necessary equipment, infrastructureand capital before final approval,which is why the facility has begun construction andsought RM approval beforebeing given the go-ahead from Health Canada.

"You can get to a certain stage, for instance, with Health Canada, but you can't get past it without that building inspection. So you really do have to put that investment in order to get to the finish line," Templeton said.