Thank you so much for the question and for your interest in our sector.
At the heart of it, when cannabis was first proposed for adult use through recreational legalization, the premise that Finance advanced was that a $10 gram would have a $1 tax. We have the $1 tax—it never changes—but the gram is $3.50, so the ratio of the tax is enormous. Actually, as our producers have reduced prices—anti-inflationary—over the last number of years, the implication has been that the ratio of the tax has even grown.
When you look at, say, a one ounce bag, 28 grams, which is a pretty common purchase, upwards of 50¢ or frequently 60¢ on the dollar is going to government in one form or another. This varies by province because we have a lot of different models out there. It's just not leaving enough for the regulated sector on either side—that's the retailers, and the producers that I represent, who've been involved in that $45-billion investment in those first three years—which produced, by the way, out of that $45 billion alone, $15 billion in taxes for governments in all forms.