Ontario reveals last-minute regulation ending cannabis delivery, pickup

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An emergency order allowing Ontario’s private-sector cannabis stores to offer home delivery and curbside pickup will end at 11:59 p.m. ET Thursday, the Ministry of the Attorney General confirmed.

The clarification followed a confusing Thursday for Ontario’s retail cannabis sector.

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), which oversees the province’s cannabis industry, issued a bulletin late Wednesday saying the delivery/curbside pickup regulation would end July 23 – even though the order declared: “This Order is revoked on July 29, 2020, unless it is extended.”

In an email to Marijuana Business Daily, Brian Gray, spokesman for the ministry, acknowledged that the emergency cannabis order had previously been extended to July 29.

However, Gray wrote, “the government has been clear that its intention was always for the order to expire alongside the end of the declaration of emergency.”

Gray revealed the ministry filed yet another regulation, an amendment that revoked the cannabis emergency order on July 23.

“As such, the emergency order will be revoked at the last instant of July 23 … in alignment with the termination of the declared emergency on July 24,” Gray wrote.

According to the text of the new regulation, the order was filed at 5:30 p.m. ET July 22 but not published online until July 23.

The AGCO did not mention the new regulation during an email exchange with MJBizDaily on Thursday morning.

Solomon Israel can be reached at solomon.israel@mjbizdaily.com