Canadian HR Reporter

Canadian HR RepoRteR april 6, 2015 6 News Find these suppliers and more in the HR Vendors Guide – your source for human resources vendors, suppliers, consultants and professional development from across Canada. Visit www.hrreporter.com/hr-vendors-guide HR VENDORS GUIDE HR VENDORS GUIDE Are you looking for help with recruitment? Training and development? Recognition? Information on HR professional development and post- secondary programs? Credit: Blair Gable (Reuters) Medical marijuana industry slowly grows Staffing challenges include finding people who understand the business BY SaRaH doBSon just one year ago, Health Can- ada's new rules around the use of medical marijuana came into ef- fect. e Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR) were introduced to create condi- tions for a commercial industry responsible for its production and distribution and to "provide access to quality-controlled, dried marijuana for medical purposes, produced under secure and sani- tary conditions, to those Canadi- ans who need it, while strength- ening the safety of Canadian communities." It was a big move meant to pre- vent abuses under the previous system, the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR), but for many licensed producers, it's been a long road when it comes to ironing out the details and finding appropriate staff. One of the big challenges has been working through the process with Health Canada as it figures out how the regulations will be enforced and requirements will be met, said Greg Engel, CEO of licensed producer Tilray in Na- naimo, B.C. "It has been definitely been a growing process on both sides," he said. "Health Canada has the strictest regulations on medical cannabis in the world — but there are unique instances that come up that are facility-unique." The regulations are always evolving because this is a new in- dustry , said Alex Abellan, founder and CEO of National Access Can- nabis (NAC) in Victoria. "Canada is going to be on a world platform level as (having) the most responsible method of dispensing marijuana in the world." Part of the challenge has been a lack of awareness or understand- ing. ere are a lot of misconcep- tions and not a lot of information out there for people, he said. "Medical marijuana is very complex and, not only that, to work within the guidelines and regulations of Health Canada, a lot of patients are having a hard time filling out the forms and also having a hard time finding the physicians who are comfort- able dealing with cannabis. Also, patients are having a hard time finding producers, licensed pro- ducers, because those producers are not allowed to advertise." With marijuana, there's billions of dollars' worth of consumption each year, said Norman Paul, chair and co-founder of licensed pro- ducer CannTrust in Vaughan, Ont. "What we're discovering in the work we've done is that a lot more people are using it for medical reasons than was made open to public because there's a bit of a stigma: 'Oh, you're using marijua- na, it's just to get high.' e truth is people are using marijuana for chemotherapy and extreme pain, to reduce the amount of opiates, anorexia nervosa, general anxiety disorder and so on." Recruitment challenges Since starting up, the business has gone well as attitudes evolve, said Engel. "What we're seeing is a real shift in awareness and attitude towards medical cannabis, as education efforts increase, as physicians and certainly patients become more aware of it as an option for them — the acceptance level continues to grow, so we've been in a great position to continue to expand." And when it comes to recruit- ing, the challenges have dimin- ished, he said. "As there is a broader accep- tance and awareness that this is a legitimate industry — with gov- ernment support and working under very strict guidelines — it has elevated the level of position and awareness of the industry, so it has made it much easier for us to attract people that we might not have been able to attract six months ago." e 120-employee Tilray has had good support from the City of Nanaimo and the province of British Columbia, which has been a real plus, said Engel. "We are a company that has a very broad range of staffing needs. On the one hand, we are a produc- tion facility, so we are growing, producing and packaging medical cannabis, so there's a mix of differ- ent requirements. So our team is really a very broad range of people from PhDs, biologists, botanists, horticulturalists, production staff, packaging staff… we have an ex- RCMP officer for head of security and real strong commercial team, and legal counsel." Recruiting employees was not easy, at least to start, said Abellan of NAC. "ere's been a big challenge to find people who are educated on cannabis," he said, adding his staff are working on accreditation to be cannabis specialists. "The industry is huge," said Abellan. "ere are so many op- portunities right now because of the medical marijuana industry, right from the seed to the growers to the farmers, the trimmers, the packaging, derivative markets… it's a new industry that's being cre- ated and there's going to be a lot of jobs created." There's also a need for transportation and security ex- Workers prune dry marijuana buds before they are processed for shipping at Tweed Marijuana in Smith's Falls, Ont., in April 2014. By unlocking the once-obscure medical marijuana market, Canada has created a fast-growing, profitable and federally regulated industry in need of skilled workers. "As there is a broader acceptance that this is a legitimate industry... it has made it much easier for us to attract people." experIeNced > pg. 10

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