Winnipeg cannabis retailer challenges Manitoba’s new staffing law and distribution model
Manitoba’s roughly 250 licensed cannabis stores do not yet know how many people the province may require them to keep on shift, a number it can now set by regulation under a bill that went from first reading to Royal Assent in 24 days.
Cannabis Law Report · · 1 min read
Manitoba’s roughly 250 licensed cannabis stores do not yet know how many people the province may require them to keep on shift, a number it can now set by regulation under a bill that went from first reading to Royal Assent in 24 days.
Bill 56 received Royal Assent on October 29, 2026, and came into force the same day. It removes the requirement for cannabis stores to cover their windows and lets regulations set how many employees must be on duty during certain hours, without naming a number or the hours. UFCW Local 832, which represents workers at The Joint and Value Buds, welcomed it as “first steps.” “The bill only created the power. The actual staffing numbers arrive later as a Cabinet regulation, which becomes law the day it is registered, with no further debate in the legislature and no public hearing,” says Tom Doran, Founder of Jupiter Cannabis, an independent store on Academy Road in Winnipeg. A notice the regulator sent licensees on October 29, as he describes it, says no staffing changes apply yet and gives no timeline for the consultation it is setting up.
The cost of a second person
“They are not modeled numbers; they come from my own payroll and my own schedule. Take our actual average hourly wage from payroll and put one additional employee on shift across our actual weekly open hours, and the cost is roughly $40,000 a year at the low end. Cover breaks and shift overlaps so that two people are genuinely present at all times, and it pushes toward $80,000,” he says. The store ran fully staffed for five to six months during a family emergency, so those costs have been through its books. “At today’s Manitoba margins, an independent store is not viable with another $40,000 to $80,000 of fixed cost.”
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From Cannabis Law Report, reporting a story first published by mmjdaily.com.
Information, not legal advice. Check the primary source before relying on it.
