Nearly eight years after legalization, the negative image associated with the cannabis industry persists, especially in the business community. Companies are struggling to secure the financing they need to support their growth.
“What holds me back every day as an entrepreneur is that banks don’t want to lend to us,” says Philippe Depault, owner of Québec Craft Cannabis and board member of the Association québécoise de l’industrie du chanvre et du cannabis (AQIC).
Québec Craft Cannabis operates in the packaging and distribution of cannabis products in Saint-Alphonse-de-Granby. Philippe Depault leveraged his mortgage and a large portion of his personal funds to launch the company in 2020.
“We’re basically being told that we have a grandfather clause. It’s impossible to get financing, impossible to even get a credit card.”
A quote from Philippe Depault, owner of Québec Craft Cannabis
“On the street, within families, people understand that it’s now legal. The biggest stigma is really on the business side,” says the entrepreneur, who is making his second attempt in the cannabis industry.
He explains that it has never been easy to enter this industry, even today, in part because government regulations remain unstable.
“We can all agree that the government was testing cannabis legalization in Canada at the same time as entrepreneurs were testing what it meant to enter this industry,” he says.
TO CONTINUE READING: Radio-Canada
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