A British Columbia-based company planning a $30-million medical marijuana cultivation and processing facility in Enniskillen Township, has addressed security related concerns with residents.
About 50 people attended a town-hall meeting with Tilray Canada at the township building on Rokeby Line in Petrolia Thursday night.
While still awaiting Health Canada approval, President Woody Pastorius says construction to convert the Enniskillen Pepper Company will begin immediately when they take over ownership next month.
"We don't need our Health Canada license to do that," says Pastorius. "It's only when we bring plants in."
Once that happens, Pastorius says the 100-acre Lasalle Line property -- that includes 13 acres of existing greenhouse space -- will be heavily regulated by the federal department.
"Our facility will have a secure perimeter all around it. It will be an eight foot fence with a foot and a half barbed [wire] on top," he says. "It will have intrusion detection, be gated and have between 400 and 500 cameras throughout the property both inside and out."
He says even if someone did manage to get in, they would never be able to get to the product.
"We have a Level 10 vault that we're building, which is one one click higher than what we have in Nanaimo," says Pastorius. "It's a massive amount of concrete, with rebar, card access with code and cameras in the vault."
Pastorius says it will be much more guarded than the current greenhouse and joked with residents that they will not be giving out samples or selling pot at the side of the road like the pepper company does.
In addition to producing whole flowers and ground cannabis, Tilray has also created pharmaceutical cannabis in capsules and drops that are exported all over the world.
The initial operation will employ about 50 people, with hundreds more expected once the company reaches peak production and processing.
Pastorius says all of their employees go through vigorous background checks and a job fair is being planned for as early as the end of October.