Punitive Taxes Are Killing Canada’s Legal Cannabis Industry

If you want to be a millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a cannabis production company in Canada.

In the original version of his famous quote, British entrepreneur Richard Branson was highlighting the challenges and capital intensive nature of the airline industry. But a new report by consultancy firm Deloitte, due for release on Wednesday, paints a similar picture.

The report looked at the impact of Canada’s cannabis excise tax and concluded the industry’s financial viability is in question because of high taxes.

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The Deloitte report, commissioned by the Cannabis Council of Canada, said that the excise tax paid to governments accounted for 31.5 per cent of gross production revenues last year, at a time when prices are falling.

It would, of course, be rare to find an industry that endorses the amount of tax it is paying.

However, the government’s own expert panel, which conducted a legislative review of the Cannabis Act last year, noted the industry’s “urgent concerns” about viability and said they were “well founded.”

Read the full story at National Post