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Information for new cannabis licence holders: Cultivation, processing or sale for medical purposes licences

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Who this is for

Use the information in this page to guide you as a new cannabis licence holder. It includes information to get you started on your daily activities, such as:

This content only applies to the following cannabis licences:

Disclaimer

You need to read this page along with the Cannabis Act (the Act) and the Cannabis Regulations (the Regulations). If there are differences between this page and the Act and the Regulations, the legislation is correct. If there are differences between the Cannabis Tracking and Licensing System (CTLS) and this page, this page is correct.

Information on your licence

This section describes the information on your licence, including:

Figure 1 shows an example of a cannabis licence document. This example is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of your specific cannabis licence.

Figure 1: Example of a cannabis licence document

text description below

Figure 1: Text Description

The cannabis licence document includes texts presented in both Canadian official languages (English and French). This document includes the following information presented from top to bottom:

  • Licence number
  • Licence
  • This licence is issued in accordance with the Cannabis Act and Cannabis Regulations
  • Licence Holder
  • Licensed Site
  • The above-mentioned person is authorized to conduct, at the site specified on this licence, the activities listed below for the following licence class and subclasses
  • Activities within a table
  • Conditions within a table
  • Indoor Area(s)
  • The possession of cannabis and the other activities mentioned above are authorized in the following building(s):
  • Outdoor Area(s)
  • The cultivation, propagation and harvesting of cannabis are authorized in the following outdoor area(s):
  • Effective date of the licence:
  • Expiry date of the licence:

Licence number

Your licence number is specific to your licensed site. You should include this number in all of your written communication with Health Canada, for example in the email's subject line.

Licence holder

The licence holder is the name of the individual or organization that owns the licence. All the official documents about your cannabis licence will use this name.

Licensed site

The licensed site is your site address, as submitted in the CTLS. This is the only location where you can do your authorized cannabis activities.

Information for each type of licence

If you have more than 1 licence at your site, you'll see this section repeated for each type of licence. This document will only include information on licence for:

Other types of cannabis or industrial hemp licences won't appear on this document. For more information about your licence and other licence types, refer to the Types of cannabis and industrial hemp licences.

Licence type

Your type of licence will specify your authorized activities at the licensed site. For example, a cultivation licence allows you to grow cannabis indoors and outdoors by cultivation, propagating and harvesting. A processing licence allows you to process harvested cannabis and industrial hemp. This licence doesn't allow you to grow cannabis.

Activities

The activities list what you're allowed to do according to your type of licence. Each type of licence will have its own authorized activities such as growing (cultivating, propagating and harvesting), producing or selling cannabis.

Conditions

Health Canada may place conditions on a licence which are specific to each licence class and sub-class and to the licence holder. These conditions may restrict the activities that you're authorized to conduct at your site. Conditions may include:

Important: Make sure you understand the licence conditions applied on your licence. Conditions may restrict the authorized activities at your site, for example limiting the type of cannabis you can sell.

Authorized areas

The authorized areas list where you can conduct authorized cannabis activities. Indoor areas will list the authorized buildings and outdoor areas will list authorized growing areas.

Effective date

The effective date listed on your licence is the first day you can start your authorized cannabis activities. Health Canada will update the effective date on your licence anytime you make changes to your licence, for example, when your authorized activities change. Licences can be issued and renewed for a maximum validity period of 5 years.

Expiry date

The expiry date is when you'll no longer be authorized to conduct cannabis activities with this current licence. To continue beyond the expiration date, you need to renew your licence before its expiry date. You should start the renewal process no less than 3 months before your licence expires.

After you receive your licence

Ensure you have a Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Licence

Not required for sale for medical purposes licences.

All holders of a licence under the Cannabis Act who are authorized to cultivate, produce and package cannabis and cannabis products are required to also hold a cannabis licence from the CRA. This may apply to the following licences under the Cannabis Regulations:

You must have both a licence from the CRA and Health Canada before you start to produce cannabis products.

For general questions, email cannabis@cra-arc.gc.ca.

Apply for a cannabis licence from the CRA - Canada.ca

Send your notices to local authorities

Not required for sale for medical purposes without possession of cannabis licences.

Within 30 days of the issuance of your licence, you must send written notice to a senior official of the local government, the local fire authority, and the local police force, or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachment responsible for providing policing services to the area where the site is located.

You can use the Notice to local authorities template. The notice must contain:

Pay your fees or apply for medical exemption request

For each fiscal year (April 1st to March 31st) that you have a valid licence, you'll need to:

The entry year ARF is due within 60 days of your licence's effective date, and September 30th for all subsequent years.

If your licence was valid for at least 1 day during the fiscal year you're considered to be a licence holder by Health Canada and are required to pay the ARF for that year.

The ARF won't be reduced if you were licensed for less than a full fiscal year or if your licence is suspended or revoked. Late payments may accrue interest charges or result in compliance and enforcement actions.

See How to pay your fees for more information on payment methods.

In certain cases, you may apply for an exemption from the annual regulatory fee.

If you want to apply for a medical sales exemption from the annual regulatory fee you must apply before September 30th at the beginning of the fiscal year you are requesting the exemption for, or within 60 days of initial licensing for new licence holders.

See Cannabis annual regulatory fee and exemption for licence holders for more information regarding the Annual Regulatory Fee and exemption.

As a cannabis licence holder, you are subject to the following transactional fees once applicable:

All transactional fees are for a single application or permit and are non-refundable. Health Canada will only begin work on your request after you have paid your invoice in full.

See Cannabis transactional fees for licence holders for more information.

Before you start producing cannabis

After receiving your cannabis licence from Health Canada, it's important to be aware of and understand information about cannabis and its production. This will help with your daily cannabis operation.

This section includes:

Legislation

You should familiarize yourself with a number of legislations to see how they apply to your licences.

Receiving cannabis at your site

Any cannabis you bring into your site must meet the requirements of the Act and the Regulations. This includes cannabis bought from an industrial hemp licence holder.

Licence holders authorized to possess cannabis can only obtain cannabis:

Producing cannabis

You need to understand the good production practices requirements for your licence type and for the activities you'll be conducting at your site.

For processing licence holders: If you conduct activities with cannabis extracts or edible cannabis, you must have a preventive control plan in place.

Testing your cannabis

You can't sell any cannabis products including industrial hemp, until the following testing has been completed as applicable:

For detailed information on testing for pesticide active ingredients and the timing of the testing including other requirements such as reporting and record keeping, refer to:

You'll need to do all required tests if you're selling cannabis that's packaged and labelled for retail and export outside of Canada. The Good production practices guide for cannabis outlines the testing requirements and when to test your cannabis.

Cannabis composition and limits

There are other requirements, such as composition, maximum quantities and prohibited ingredients, specific to the type of cannabis you produce for the intended market. The Guide on composition requirements for cannabis products outlines cannabis composition, specification and details on the limits of quantities of various cannabis types.

Packaging and labelling

Each type of cannabis has its own packaging and labelling requirements. These requirements aim to:

For more information on these requirements and how to meet them, refer to the Packaging and labelling guide for cannabis products.

Record keeping and retention

You need to keep all records as required by the Regulations. The retention period varies depending on the record type.

Voluntary recalls

A recall is any action you take to correct or remove cannabis from sale or distribution and to notify your customers and the public of a problem or potential problem with the cannabis. For more information on what you need to send when you recall a product, refer to the Cannabis voluntary recall guide.

You also need to complete a recall simulation (or a mock recall) at least once per year based on your site's recall procedures.

Promotions prohibitions

There's a number of prohibitions as well as various exemptions on the promotion of:

Promotion includes advertising by any means. This includes:

For more information on promotion prohibition, refer to:

Reporting

You have to send various reports to Health Canada by email or through the Cannabis Tracking and Licensing System (CTLS).

Before you start selling cannabis

Prior to the sale of dried cannabis, fresh cannabis, edible cannabis, cannabis extracts and cannabis topicals that are cannabis products, you must meet the following requirements:

  1. Your licence must state that you're authorized to sell the class of cannabis. If it doesn't, you'll need to apply for an amendment to add the sale activity of edible cannabis, cannabis extracts and cannabis topicals.
  2. You must notify Health Canada of your intent to sell a cannabis product that you haven't previously sold in Canada. This doesn't apply to cannabis plants or cannabis plant seeds. The Notice of New Cannabis Product must be provided to Health Canada at least 60 calendar days before making the new cannabis product available for sale.

Participating in an inspection

Once you receive your licence, Health Canada may conduct inspections to make sure that you're meeting the requirements of the Act and the Regulations. During an inspection, a Health Canada inspector may enter:

Inspections can be unannounced or scheduled in advance. Health Canada may conduct them onsite or virtually through video communications.

The length of time of your site's inspection and the issuance of your inspection report will depend on many factors, including:

What to expect on an inspection will provide details on the inspection process and the steps you can take in responding to an inspection report.

A Guide to Health Canada inspections can help you prepare for a Health Canada inspection.

Making changes to your licence

If you want to make changes to your licence, you'll have to submit a change request or apply for licence renewal to Health Canada. This can include:

Your responsible person needs to send change requests and information in the Cannabis Tracking and Licensing System (CTLS).

Refer to Manage your cannabis cultivation, processing or sale for medical purposes licence for the steps on how to submit these changes.

Resources

Here are links to resources that will keep you informed with the latest rules and guidelines. We'll update this section regularly as we add new resources.

Updates for cannabis and industrial hemp

Updates for cannabis and industrial hemp allows you to view the most recent program updates for the cannabis and industrial hemp industry.

Cannabis and hemp licence holders should subscribe to receive notifications of new posts.

Online course

This self-paced course will help you understand your obligations under the Act and the Regulations. It lets you review information any time and at your own pace, and provides you with important resources.

Refer to Online course for licence holders for instructions on how to access this course.

Contact us

To contact Health Canada, your email subject line should include the following:

Refer to the following contacts for questions related to:

For general questions, email cannabis@hc-sc.gc.ca or contact Health Canada by phone at 1-866-337-7705.

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