Manitoba ending social responsibility fee on cannabis retailers

The Manitoba government is putting an end to the social responsibility fee on cannabis retailers.

On Thursday, Finance Minister Cliff Cullen announced that the province has proclaimed legislation to end the collection of the fees retroactive to Jan. 1, 2022.

The legislation to end the fee was introduced in November 2022, and originally proposed ending the levy on Jan. 1, 2023. However, due to stakeholder requests to retain fees from the 2022 calendar year, the repeal date was changed to Jan. 1, 2022, so money collected in 2022 will be returned to retailers.

“Our government is committed to listening to small businesses and they have told us they would like to retain more of their earnings to reinvest in vital capital and labour costs,” Cullen said in a news release.

“The cannabis market in Manitoba has matured to a point where we are able to balance the sector’s social responsibility with the sector’s competitiveness.”

Manitoba announced the six per cent social responsibility fee in 2018. Provincially-licensed cannabis retailers had to pay the regulatory fee on recreational cannabis revenue as a way to contribute to the social costs of legalizing cannabis.

Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries will still apply wholesale markups on recreational cannabis at the distributor level. These markups are 75 cents per gram, plus an additional nine per cent.