The country’s retail cannabis sales went down for the second consecutive month in February according to Statistics Canada, although daily sales actually increased when taking into account the shorter month. Sales declined 2.1% in January of this year but dropped further again in February by 2.9%. Total sales for February were $336.4 million, down from $346.4 million the previous month.
All but two provinces saw a downturn in retail sales figures with Ontario and Saskatchewan the only ones to see an improvement. Sales in Ontario rose to $142.5 million from $136.4 million for a bump of 4.4% while Saskatchewan experienced a meagre increase of 1.5% as its figure rose from $14.4 million to $14.6 million. Coincidentally, those same two provinces both saw an uptick in sales across January too.
As of January, British Columbia’s retail sales surpassed those of Quebec putting that province in 3rd place for the highest sales in Canada.
The rest of the provinces reported declines with February sales as follows:
• Alberta: $58 million (-5.4%)
• British Columbia: $46.3 million (-7.1%)
• Quebec: $41.9 million (-12.4 %)
• Manitoba: $12.1 million (-7.6%)
• Nova Scotia: $7 million (-9.3%)
• New Brunswick: $5.8 million (-9.6%)
• Newfoundland & Labrador: $4.7 million (-16%)
• Prince Edward Island: $1.6 million (-11.9%)
• Yukon: $758,000 (-6.1%)
Statistics Canada reported that the most substantial drops in sales were in Newfoundland and Labrador (16%) and Quebec (12.4%). These declines were closely followed by Prince Edward Island (11.9%) and New Brunswick (9.6%). No sales figures were available for the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.