This Indigenous-owned cannabis retailer is exercising traditional rights while offering greater choice to the Ottawa market
From The Ottawa Citizen by Peter Kenter November 1 2024
The historical use of medicinal plants runs deep in Algonquin culture and provided the inspiration for Anthony (A.J.) Tenasco to establish Red Roots Trading Company, a series of Ottawa-area cannabis trading posts located on unceded Algonquin lands.
Founded in 2023 as a sovereign Algonquin-owned and -operated business, Red Roots Trading Company operates its business according to tradition, sourcing unique cannabis products, developing its own brands and working to benefit the Indigenous communities through its operations.
“Retailing cannabis just happens to be a way that we could exercise our constitutional rights while helping people,” Tenasco says.
Red Roots forwards 16 per cent of all proceeds to benefit the Kitigan Zibi community, an Algonquin reserve of 3,000 residents located 150 km north of Ottawa in Quebec. Although Tenasco was raised in Syracuse, N.Y., he spent the summers of his youth in the reserve, where most of his family still lives.
“The whole goal is to help as many Indigenous children and elders as possible,” Tenasco says. “For example, we’re now taking names so we can provide winter coats to children who need them.”
In addition to the fact that Red Roots aids residents of Kitigan Zibi, customers are discovering that the cannabis retailer is offering products unique to the area. While other retailers must purchase from the same pool of products offered by the provincial Crown corporation that supplies most Ontario retailers, Red Roots procures its products through a First Nations supply chain. This allows the company to source its products ethically, sustainably and competitively, all while supporting Indigenous communities across Canada.
The company has established five house brands among its offerings of more than a hundred strains of flower, plus gummies, beverages and edibles.
All Red Roots products must undergo rigorous testing at an accredited third-party lab, to ensure purity, potency and consistency.
Red Roots Trading Company opened its first location on 196 Beechwood Ave. in Vanier, expanding quickly to two additional Ottawa locations at 1990 Russell Rd. and 1717 Bank St. A fourth Ottawa location is set to open at 122 Clarence St. in November.
Tenasco’s dreams for the future? Continued growth in Ottawa and throughout Algonquin territory with hopes to establish a retail outlet in Kitigan Zibi itself.
“I would like to team up with my community and open a big dispensary there, where we make edibles and create the products that we sell,” he says. “Community members could make good money year-round, and the profits would be distributed equally to every member of the community.”
For more information on the Red Roots Trading Company, please visit redrootstrading.ca.
This story was created by Content Works, Postmedia’s commercial content division, on behalf of Red Roots Trading Company.
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