What will be the biggest challenge clients face? What have advisors done in different jurisdictions to protect clients?

I love sessions like this because you get to learn so much more about different jurisdictions. It’s all very fascinating.

I want to come at this second question from a different angle. It’s very interesting to see how many Americans, in particular, are coming to Canada to invest in these products in anticipation of US federal authorisation.

These US players participating in the Canadian cannabis industry are using this opportunity to invest and get a good handle on the technology and the brands. There are marks either registered or pending before CIPO in anticipation of when the US market is federally authorized and with the expectation of expansion as soon as the market becomes more widely accessible. At that time, I anticipate that we will see US filings on the basis of either Canadian use or the Canadian priority to pending or registered marks.

Another consideration is the practical implications of federal, provincial and even municipal regulation of impacting the sale of cannabis. Canada is wonderfully odd in a number of ways, but from a constitutional perspective there’s a lot of distinction between what is authorised at the federal level, regulated provincially and even managed at the city/municipal level. This fascinatingly plays out in terms of access to both medicinal and recreational cannabis.

Federal authorizations deal with the production, cultivation and processing of cannabis and cannabis containing products across the country regardless of whether it is for medical or recreational purposes.

In terms of recreational cannabis access, our offices are in downtown Toronto and I can walk out my door and probably
within five minutes I will hit at least six cannabis shops. That’s not the case for all of the cities and municipalities in Canada. The advertisement of recreational sale of Cannabis is governed by the federal Cannabis Act, but the authorization of these stores is done at the provincial and even municipal levels each of which may decide differently how many stores to allow and where within their respective towns and cities, if they allowed these stores at all.

The takeaway is for all clients, Canadian or otherwise there is some significant governmental and statutory navigation that will impact operation and investment vehicles and activities.