NB Liquor issues call for marijuana retail spaces

NB Liquor has issued a call for proposals for retail spaces to sell cannabis in 15 New Brunswick communities.

The tender says the Crown corporation is looking for 3,000-square-foot spaces, suggesting the spaces will not be attached to the agency's liquor stores.

The facilities are to be "substantially completed" by May 31, 2018, the ad says.

In September, the province announced it had formed a new Crown corporation to oversee the sale of recreational marijuana.

But Finance Minister Cathy Rogers also said the Crown corporation won't run retail operations, and that the province would work with "an other entity" to do so. It did not identify the other entity as NB Liquor and has made no further announcement.

• New Crown corporation to oversee recreational pot sales in province

A spokesman for NB Liquor referred a request for comment to Department of Finance spokeswoman Sarah Bustard.

Bustard did not say whether NB Liquor had been chosen as the entity to run the province's retail sales of recreational marijuana.

But she said the corporation has been part of the province's working group on cannabis and was in the best position to issue the tender as it has experience in the retail market.

"We have to be ready for the July 2018 deadline and issuing tenders for the potential retail space allows us to do this," she said via email.

She said she could not comment further "out of respect for the tendering process."