Lake Country city council approved the Okanagan’s first cannabis store in December, but that Starbuds location has yet to open its doors.

Despite being given the green light by the municipality, Lake Country's retail cannabis store has been waiting four months for provincial approval.

According to one industry expert, the seven pot shops up for approval in Kelowna on Tuesday night can likely expect a similar timeline. 

“Back in December, we were one of the early applications and we thought our store would be open by January,” said Daniel Winer, director of marketing with Starbuds.

“It feels like there has not been enough services dedicated to what a long queue there is, so we don't expect our Kelowna application to move any quicker.”

On Tuesday night, Kelowna city council could sign off on as many as seven retail cannabis applications, however, those given the green light will then be slotted in behind the 320 pot shops also waiting for provincial approval.

“Unless Kelowna has a direct line to the provincial government, which to my knowledge they don’t, any store that receives municipal approval will simply get in the queue,” explained Winer, who will be representing Starbuds Kelowna location application.

Thus far, the provincial government has approved 17 of a possible 343 retail cannabis applications.

For comparison, Alberta’s provincial government has 75 stores.

“Our partners in Lake Country have put their life on hold to open a cannabis store, it’s now been four months and they still don’t have any idea when they can open the doors,” said Winer.

According to a recent report, B.C. has spent less on legal cannabis than any other province, an interesting stat considering the West Coast’s “B.C. bud” reputation.