First Nation announces farm-to-gate cannabis operations in Canada |

This week, Canada is celebrating Sugar Cane Cannabis, British Columbia’s first farm-to-gate cannabis facility. It is also the first facility of its kind in Canada to be located on First Nations land.

The Williams Lakes Dispensary is a major milestone for Canadian cannabis and Aboriginal communities across the country.

“It’s been a very long journey when you look at what we’ve been through and what the staff have been able to bring together,” Williams Lake Chief of the First Nations Willie Sellars told Black Press Media at the state of inauguration on March 6. May -the-art, 7,000-square-foot facility that will allow customers to purchase cannabis directly from the facility where it is grown.

“They have realized this vision model for artisanal cannabis tourism. It’s still a bit surreal, but you can see how excited they are to show it to the public.”

This new cannabis farm-to-gate facility has taken two years of work as Williams Lake First Nation has expanded its Unity Cannabis brand into retail outlets in communities like Penticton and Merrit. They are also opening a new facility in Lac La Hache soon. There are plans to continue opening retail stores across the province, all stocked with cannabis grown in Williams Lake. They plan to bring in their first harvest soon.

“It’s not the gold rush everyone was expecting, but it’s a nice little niche business that provides WLFN with a revenue stream and also provides employment opportunities for people not just at WLFN but across the province,” Sellars says.

Plants for the company are supplied by Life Cycle Botanicals, which was licensed in May 2022. They transplant and grow the plants in five different rooms within the Sugar Cane Cannabis Facility. Each room contains different flavors, strains, aromas, potencies, and pharmaceutical properties, and the rooms are filled to the brim with plants.

Master Grower Brendon Roberts has relocated from Toronto to work at this special new facility where he works 24/7 to grow the best bud possible. The plants have a 12 hour light and 12 hour dark schedule.

“They go to bed at 7 p.m.,” he says.

The facility is still under construction and soon a mixed-use building called The Osprey Nest, which will include a cafe, meeting spaces and open concept lofts, will also be on site. The company is scheduled to break ground on the new building in the next few weeks.

David Coney, BC’s Director of Cannabis Secretariat for Indigenous Government Relations, has worked with WLFN and believes this is an important next step for First Nations in the world of cannabis. “It’s fantastic; it’s a beautiful facility,” he says.

However, this did not come without a rocky road forward. WLFN Advisor Chris Wycotte has been open about his doubts about the plan to open a business like this by and for the First Nations community.

“We had to take it to the community and the community supported it. There was no resistance. Maybe there was some concern, but no opposition.”

And that’s not the only good news on the horizon for WLFN. Earlier in May, the First Nations group said it intended to hold a referendum on June 29 this year to allow members to vote on a proposed $135 million settlement with the federal government. If the agreement is accepted, a long-standing demand for land evictions from the lands of traditional tribal villages. This happened 160 years ago, so redemption has been a long time coming. Up to 400 of the more than 800 members of the congregation are entitled to vote.

This new, innovative cannabis facility marks an important milestone for First Nations communities.