Aurora Cannabis Inc.’s facility in Medicine Hat, Alta., is so large that it appears to stretch for miles on end, with a long row of bright white greenhouses dwarfing every other structure in the town’s industrial park.
But on a snowy Wednesday morning in late November, there’s only a semblance of activity around the facility. Tractors roll up along the main entranceway to the greenhouse in an attempt to shovel snow, while at least four people are perched on elevated cranes watching the tractors work.
Just months earlier, the construction of Aurora Sun — which the company pegged as the world’s largest greenhouse facility by square footage — was happening at a frenetic pace as workers raced around the clock to meet a self-imposed deadline of being fully operational by the end of 2019.
“They were going full steam. They were paying overtime, working 24 hours, pouring concrete, doing a lot of things,” said Medicine Hat Mayor Ted Clugston. “Then they halted that push.”
Aurora in mid-November, just after posting one of its weakest financial quarters ever, abruptly announced it was halting construction in order to conserve $110 million of cash. Its cannabis revenues during the first quarter declined by 25 per cent and its losses widened.
The delay was a prudent step to rein in expenses, given the slow sales and the four existing cannabis facilities across the country that Aurora already owns and operates, including a mammoth 800,000-square-foot plant in Edmonton.
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