Briefing highlights
- Cross-Canada cannabis prices
- A Trump-Haley scene I’d love to see
- Markets at a glance
- Ottawa shuts door on deal with SNC
- GFL in $3.65-billion deal
Cross-Canada marijuana prices
They say the grass is always greener on the other side.
But it’s not always cheaper, particularly if you live in Ontario and Quebec.
The latest findings from Statistics Canada show some interesting price dynamics with legal marijuana just a week away.
According to the agency’s crowdsourcing data, average prices for dried cannabis in Ontario rose in the third quarter to $7.49 a gram, up 5.8 per cent from the previous three months.
At the same time, they fell notably in British Columbia, by 7.5 per cent to $7.04.
Prices dipped in most other regions, except for Quebec, which showed a marginal increase.
The latest numbers are based on almost 1,300 submissions, made anonymously, to the agency’s StatsCannabis website.
Those submissions, by the way, also rose from about 860 in the second quarter as Statistics Canada aims to get a handle on the market in the runup to legalization next week.
Put together, the numbers put the average national price for pot at $7.20 a gram in the third quarter, and $6.86 for the first nine months of the year.
But, like Canada’s housing markets, location is everything when it comes to prices.
The Statistics Canada numbers also showed that medical users of cannabis consumer more than those on the recreational side.
The overall total showed Canadians consuming an average 19.8 grams a month in the first nine months of the year: Those using it for medicinal purposes used 36.9 grams a month, paying an average $7.27, while recreational users consumed less and paid less, at 15.6 grams and $6.79, respectively.
One economist said it’s difficult to know why prices moved as they did in the latest quarter, given that the numbers are crowdsourced.
Indeed, Statistics Canada advised using caution when looking at the data, too.
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A Trump-Haley scene I’d love to see
Maybe this time you’ll listen to me. I quit!
Photo illustration
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Markets at a glance
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SNC says Ottawa shuts door on deal
SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. says the Canadian government declined to enter into negotiations on a deal that would settle corruption and fraud charges against the company, a surprising development that further clouds the engineering firm's attempts to put its ethics scandals behind it.
The shares fell after the company’s announcement, The Globe and Mail’s Nicolas Van Praet reports.
Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin, Canada’s biggest engineering company, said in a statement it has been advised by the Director of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (DPPSC) that at this time, the prosecution service will not invite the company to negotiate a remediation agreement. The company said it “strongly disagrees” with the DPPSC’s current position and remains open to striking a deal.
It said it is reviewing its options to appeal the decision.
Michael Babad