The Green Bouquet Cannabis Inc. opened in May

Written by: Sarah Law, for the Huntsville Forester on Sunday, August 8, 2021.

A new cannabis retail store in Port Sydney received a special visit from the province’s premier.

Heather Huff-Bogart is the owner of The Green Bouquet Cannabis Inc., located at 15 South Mary Lake Rd., Unit 2.

The store opened on May 21 and offers a variety of flowers, cannabidiol products, lotions, edibles, beverages and cannabis accessories.

Huff-Bogart said she has been working in the industry for nearly a decade and is a certified cannabis sommelier.

“What motivated me to actually get into the industry was a personal illness that I started using medical cannabis for — and then it kind of went towards a career from there,” she said.

Opening her store, which has four employees plus herself, was a “long and tedious process,” she said. She estimates there was about a year and a half between incorporating her business and opening its doors.

But so far, things have been going well, she said.

“The local community is extremely supportive,” she said. “We're just continuously getting a little bit busier every week, which is awesome.”

On Aug. 7, she was excited when she realized Premier Doug Ford was in the plaza, so she approached him for a photo.

“He was at the plaza and I asked him if he would mind taking a picture with me in front of my business that I just opened during the pandemic, and he was more than happy to support it,” said Huff-Bogart.

She said he offered her congratulations on opening up and gave her his contact information.

“I was really proud to have him there in front of the store because without his party, independent cannabis retailers wouldn't really be around,” she said.

Looking ahead to the fall and winter, she said, she hopes to start offering monthly meetups for people to talk about cannabis.

“That's something I'm looking at as a community giveback because everybody's been so supportive,” she said.

The Green Bouquet Cannabis Inc. is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. The store can be reached at 705-385-9333 or hello@thegreenbouquetcannabis.com.

Sarah Law is a reporter with the Gravenhurst Banner. In addition to Gravenhurst, she also covers school boards in Muskoka.