With another cannabis greenhouse opening its doors in Pelham, the small town is poised to become the marijuana mecca of Ontario.

CannTrust may be celebrating the grand opening of its Niagara facility today, but production is already well underway.

“This is a business that’s very fast moving right now and you have to be prepared for the next move before it comes.”

With an October 17th legalization date in mind, preparations are in full effect according to Michael Camplin of CannTrust.

“We’re definitely ramping up production, we have a lot of good quality product coming out now and we are stock piling some in our vault so we product ahead of time in preparation for that.”

The facility expects to produce 50,000 kilograms of pot by the end of the year and that number is expected to double by the following year.

CannTrust has 100s of strains of cannabis in their library, but are actively producing 16 right now, including this one called Cannatonic.

They’re also taking advantage of local talent.

“We need people who are technically skilled or have the capabilities to learn new techniques. So we look at the colleges, Niagara College being a great example.”

In fact, CannTrust has partnered with the college’s commercial cannabis production program, providing internships, job opportunities and practical teaching sessions.

According to Pelham’s mayor Dave Augustyn. “They’re great jobs for the community they say right now 200 people here and could expand up to 500 jobs and any community having that many jobs would applaud.”

This facility becomes the sixth of its kind in Pelham, a growing trend for the small community of 17,000.

“We treat this as agriculture, so there aren’t any extra hoops they have go through that maybe some communities have. So we work closely with the operator to make the facility happen.”

The growth shows no signs of stopping, with an additional 600-square foot expansion on the facility in the works.