Category: Legalized

Welcome to the season finale of Legalized. Season 3 followed the early days of cannabis legalization as this historic promise became a reality. After spending the season exploring market trends, media developments and industry players, we took this episode to look back at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise to legalize recreational cannabis and the political repercussions of legalization at the federal, provincial and municipal levels of government.

Navigator Executive Chairman Jaime Watt and Principal Amanda Galbraith, two seasoned political veterans, join host Danielle Parr to discuss the role cannabis played in the 2015 election, and how politicians at all three levels of government will aim to frame legalization going forward. We look at the pressure points, political reverberations and questions as the federal election approaches and as provinces and municipalities continue scrambling to get their houses in order. You won’t want to miss the insights, analysis and predictions.

This is Legalized, The Politics of Cannabis.

On this episode of Legalized, we zone in on British Columbia (BC), which has held the title of Canada’s cannabis capital for decades prior to legalization. We look at the different ways that provincial politics, local history and culture have shaped BC’s legal cannabis market. This billion-dollar industry of small growers and grey market dispensaries has in many ways faced growing pains adapting to legalization and finding a road to legitimacy in the new cannabis market.

To unpack it all, we take a trip to our Vancouver office, where Navigator Senior Consultant Alex Shiff spoke with Jamie Shaw, a long-time cannabis activist and industry insider, about BC’s unique environment for cannabis production and retail. Then, host Danielle Parr interviews Darren Henderson, partner at PwC Canada, to talk about the cannabis regulatory framework in BC.

BC’s cannabis future remains an open question, but through our guests’ insights, analysis and commentary, this episode provides an important and timely look at how we got here and the driving factors that will shape the industry’s success or failure. Listen now.

Happy New Year, and welcome to the first episode of Legalized in 2019.

On this episode we explore how Canadian companies are poised to grow and establish their presence in international markets.  While our focus has often been on the ability of Licensed Producers to service recreational Canadian consumers, their priorities are often much more extensive. They’re supplying medical patients. They’re entering international markets. They’re exploring retail options and, in some cases, cultivating and processing for edible products. They’re building and constantly fine-tuning brands. To put it succinctly, there are many competing priorities for cannabis companies on the path to building an empire.

How do executives set priorities? What drives their decisions? What pressure points are most important? How do they envision the industry evolving?  Danielle sits down with Alison Gordon,  CEO of 48North and Darren Karasiuk, Executive Vice President Adult Use, Global at Aurora Cannabis, two Licensed Producers with very different approaches to the cannabis industry, to discuss these questions and so much more.

On this week’s episode of Legalized, host Danielle Parr is joined by Navigator principal Dave Phillips and senior consultant Jeff Costen to discuss the good, bad and ugly that we saw over the past year.

We review the historic passage of legislation that ended prohibition, the efforts of provinces and municipalities to get their house in order and the global expansion of Canadian cannabis companies. Then, we hear from friends of the show and movers in Canada’s legal cannabis industry on what consumers, governments and industry participants have to look forward to in the year ahead:

• Dr. Ife Abiola, 420 Clinics
• Lorenzo Lisi, Aird & Berlis LLP
• Dan Skilleter, Lobo Genetics
• Ranjeev Dhillon, McCarthy Tétrault
• Lisa Campbell, Lifford Cannabis Solutions

Tune in to hear more expert punditry, predictions and prognostications.

On this episode of Legalized, host Danielle Parr talks with Navigator principals Dave Phillips and Lisa Pearson about crises in the cannabis industry. With legal cannabis still in its embryonic days, Licensed Producers and retailers face unique scrutiny. The leading players all have ambitious plans to tell their stories and present their brands to governments, investors and consumers. But as Mike Tyson famously declared: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” And with so many moving parts in this rapidly-changing industry, these punches are inevitable. We’ve seen many of them play out already, from data breaches to recalls to supply shortages.

At Navigator, these seemingly extraordinary crises are part of our ordinary. Tune in to learn more about managing risk, responding to the unexpected and taking the right steps to restore trust and credibility when faced with a crisis.