Jason Guttridge, one of the owners of 7 Farms Down, a proposed outdoor cannabis operation in Merlin, is shown at Zonta Park in downtown Chatham on Oct. 17, 2019. (Tom Morrison/Postmedia Network)
With government approvals now out of the way, owners of a Merlin-based outdoor cannabis operation plan to have their seeds in the ground in the spring with harvesting expected in late summer.
After receiving the cultivation license from Health Canada on Friday, Jason Guttridge, CEO of 7 Farms Down, said the business is ready to move forward. He said there were several barriers that delayed his expected timeline.
“Nobody could have predicted the pandemic in 2020, but we were pretty fortunate and able to keep pushing through,” he said. “We reduced our crew sizes. We had a lot less people on site, basically only one contractor at a time, so it slowed down our buildout.”
As well, Guttridge said working through the Health Canada approvals was “a pretty involved process.”
“The amount of red tape in this industry is astronomical, so it’s a little bit of navigation on our part,” he said. “Luckily, we had a consultant that really guided us through, which made it a lot easier.”
The plan came with some pushback from neighbours. Sandy Maynard, who lives in a home next to the field, told…
