Chris Lowrey
LITCHFIELD Feb. 21, 2018
With the legalization of pot on the horizon, the Pontiac might be getting an opportunity for a new mass employer.
Cannabis and hemp producer LiveWell Foods announced in December that all zoning and site proposals had been accepted and construction will begin this year on a 600,000 square foot greenhouse and accompanying global innovation centre in the Pontiac Industrial Park in Litchfield.
LiveWell also recently received approval from the City of Ottawa to retrofit an already-existing 540,000 square foot greenhouse in Metcalfe.
The company applied for approval in July from Health Canada to enter the legal cannabis market, and is waiting on approval.
According to LiveWell CEO Michel Lemieux, final approval from Health Canada will come after the construction of the greenhouses.
Lemieux said LiveWell has already completed most of the steps to get approval from Health Canada and the remaining steps are among the last ones.
The Canadian government has pushed back the legalization of cannabis to at least August 2018 from the initial date of July 1, 2018.
The Pontiac project will be headed up by a LiveWell subsidiary called Artiva.
According to Lemieux, the Litchfield facility could employ around 500 people.
“If this goes through, this will have a huge impact in terms of job creation in the Pontiac,” said Litchfield Mayor Colleen Larivière.
She said the municipality is cautiously optimistic about the project and is doing everything possible to work with LiveWell.
The global innovation centre will focus on developing the uses of hemp and cannabis.
Cannabis and hemp are essentially the same plant. They differ in the amount of the active psychedelic ingredient in cannabis – THC. If a plant contains less than three per cent THC, it is considered a hemp plant. If its THC component is higher than three percent, it’s considered cannabis.
Lemieux pointed to the presence of hemp in some brands of hummus and energy bars as potential uses for the plant.
Lemieux said his hope is to partner with Canadian universities to research hemp and cannabis applications.
The plan is to use parts of the existing structures but also to add to what’s already there.
Lemieux said he was originally approached to build the global innovation centre and additional greenhouses in New Brunswick.
“As the good French-Canadians that we are we said, ‘Why don’t we start in Quebec?’” Lemieux said. “Through some connections we heard that Litchfield had a beautiful site so we visited it and we started from that point.”
Lemieux said that the location’s close proximity to water, power generation and a market like Ottawa made it a perfect choice.
