Social media users following the cannabis sector might have seen at least one post suggesting the federal government was wrapped up in the industry’s recent wave of layoffs and losses. A tweet from psychologist and author Jordan Peterson last month claimed the government was losing money growing weed because cannabis company Canopy Growth Corp. was closing its flagship Smiths Falls, Ont., cultivation facility and cutting 800 jobs after losing $267 million in its most recent quarter. This is false. Canopy is not government-owned or -operated and the government is one of the few entities profiting from the legalization of weed.
±Ê±ð³Ù±ð°ù²õ´Ç²Ô’s quote tweets material from Matt Lamers, a journalist from cannabis trade publication MJBizDaily, promoting a story he was writing about Canopy’s job cuts and plan to close a facility it was running at a former Hershey chocolate factory.
Peterson wrote, “Only the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø government could lose money growing pot. They should have hired the Trailer Park Boys.â€
He then for “Trailer Park Boys: Don't Legalize It,†a mockumentary film released in 2014 featuring the stars of the "Trailer Park Boys," a series of TV shows and movies about a group of trailer park residents living in Dartmouth, N.S.
In “Trailer Park Boys: Don't Legalize It,†character Ricky heads to Ottawa to stop the legalization of cannabis.
Rating: False
ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø cannabis companies grow their own pot, but are regulated by a patchwork of government authorities, predominantly Health Canada.
"Health Canada does not have an ownership stake in Canopy Growth Corporation," Health Canada spokesperson Tammy Jarbeau said in a statement.
However, the department collects revenue from the industry under the Cannabis Act, which gives it the authority to charge fees to recover regulatory costs, she said.
One of those fees is , which varies by province, but when combined with other fees, $1 per gram, or 10 per cent of a producer’s selling price, whichever is higher, under the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Agreement on Cannabis Taxation.
The Canada Revenue Agency collected in net excise cannabis duties in the 2020 to 2021 fiscal year alone.
Lamers has also called Peterson out on his tweet,
"The most profitable cannabis businesses in Canada are actually owned by governments," he tweeted.
"No one makes more money than the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø government selling cannabis."
Société québécoise du cannabis, Quebec's cannabis retailer, made a gross profit of in its most recent fiscal year, up from $133.8 million in the prior year.
The Ontario Cannabis Store, Ontario's pot business, recorded a net income of in its most recent fiscal year, up from $70.2 million the year before.
Weeding out the truth
While the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø and provincial governments have been earning massive sums from the cannabis industry, several licensed producers have been reporting losses.
In its most recent quarter, Canopy of $266.7 million, or 54 cents per diluted share. The result compared with a net loss of $115.5 million, or 28 cents per diluted share, in the same quarter a year earlier.
The loss was driven primarily by non-cash, fair-value changes and an increase in asset impairment and restructuring costs, Canopy said.
Rival producers and have incurred similar losses and the industry has been cutting jobs, closing facilities and rethinking products to ensure demand and supply are balanced.
They have and the strength of the illicit marketfor their losses. The illicit market of Ontario's cannabis market in March 2022 compared with .
Profitability under review
The government has been working to help pot companies reverse their misfortunes, so Ottawa isn't alone in making a sizable profit from cannabis.
The government launched last September a , which set purchase and of dried pot or the equivalent, restricted youth access to marijuana and established safety requirements for growing, selling and transporting the substance.
The man behind the tweet
Peterson has a reputation for sowing discord.
Most of the controversy he has garnered has come from his opinions on women, transgender people and sexuality. He an Ottawa city councillor who uses they/them pronouns was doing an "appalling self-righteous moralizing thing."
Another time he tweeted about a Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover featuring a plus-sized model, , “Sorry. Not Beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that."
The College of Psychologists of Ontario has investigated him after receiving complaints about his tweets and a media training program.
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Cannabis company Canopy Growth to lay off 800, close and consolidate some facilities – ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø ()
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