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The Rocky Mountaineer is growing — and so, too, may the local economy
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BUSINESS/A21
Job fair set for public pot store JESSICA WALLACE STAFF REPORTER jessica@kamloopsthisweek.com
ministries, the demand for hops is exploding, lit by the seemingly limitless growth of craft beer. “It’s like any other business. It doesn’t come to fruition, we got to look at other options,” Seymour said, noting the band is now exploring other avenues for that tract of land. “We need infrastructure for sure on there,” he said. About three years ago, Tk’emlups partnered with Hops Canada, a brokerage company that buys and resells hops.
The provincial government is hiring cannabis consultants. The BC Liquor Distribution Branch has posted jobs online and will be hosting a job fair next week in Kamloops in anticipation of a new provincial cannabis store opening in the city, when recreational pot becomes legal this fall. The branch is hiring a store manager, assistant store manager and eight cannabis consultants, who are essentially clerks. Salaries for the clerk positions, which fall under the BC Government and Service Employees’ Union, range from $40,394 to $45,617 annually. The posting says the positions require “knowledge of cannabis products.” The store manager position will pay between $54,000 and $75,400 annually. Closing dates to apply are on Aug. 3 and Aug. 5. The job postings follow an announcement last week by the provincial government that Kamloops will become home to the first government-owned cannabis store in B.C. as the federal government moves to legalize recreational cannabis on Oct. 17. The store will occupy nearly 3,000 square feet in the former Your Dollar Store With More location next to Save-On-Foods in Columbia Place Shopping Centre in Sahali. That space is currently vacant as the dollar store has relocated in the strip mall.
See BEDARD, A4
See JOB FAIR, A6
DAVE EAGLES/KTW Hops Canada was billed as Canada’s largest hops farm only two years ago. Today, the vast fields on the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc reserve east of the North Thompson River are empty, the hops farm no longer in operation.
NO LONGER HOPPING TO IT AT TIB
MICHAEL POTESTIO STAFF REPORTER michael@kamloopsthisweek.com
What was once dubbed Canada’s largest hop farm is no longer in operation. Hops should be in full bloom this time of year on 220 acres of land across from Westsyde, where the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc had been growing the flowering plants commonly used in beer brewing, but the site now sits empty. Tk’emlups Chief Fred Seymour told KTW the band has shut down its hop farm venture because
it wasn’t making money. “It’s all over, said and done with,” he said. Seymour refused to provide further details regarding what went wrong with the business. In 2016, Tk’emlups Coun. Howard Campbell, whose portfolio is business development, told KTW the band saw a long-term revenue stream in the hop farm, which employed about 10 people year-round and 15 to 20 people seasonally. According to a 2015 study done for the provincial and federal agriculture
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