{"id":84475,"date":"2025-11-26T04:23:45","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T12:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2025\/11\/26\/over-5b-in-cannabis-tax-collected\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T19:46:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T03:46:39","slug":"over-5b-in-cannabis-tax-collected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2025\/11\/26\/over-5b-in-cannabis-tax-collected\/","title":{"rendered":"Over $5B in Cannabis Tax Collected!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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OTTAWA \u2014 Ottawa and the provinces raked in more than $5.4 billion in cannabis tax revenue since the drug was legalized for recreational use in October 2018.<\/p>\n

The federal government has collected $1.2 billion, with the remaining $4.2 billion going to provincial coffers.<\/p>\n

Ontario took in the greatest provincial share of revenue $1.5 billion with Alberta coming in second at just over $1 billion, despite having less than a third of Ontario’s population.<\/p>\n

Alberta collected the most per capita tax revenue of any province since recreational cannabis was legalized, pulling in about $210 per person.<\/p>\n

In terms of per capita tax revenue, Alberta easily surpassed its nearest rivals the Northwest Territories, which collected $135.80 per person. They are followed by the Yukon at $126.35, Saskatchewan at $121.55 and Newfoundland and Labrador at $113.65.<\/p>\n

Quebec has the lowest per capita share of recreational cannabis tax revenue, at just $55.31 per person since October 2018.<\/p>\n

The information comes in an answer to a House of Commons order paper question from Quebec Conservative MP Luc Berthold, who asked for a breakdown of cannabis tax revenue and spending on associated prevention programs.<\/p>\n

Federal tax revenue does fall short of the government’s original projects. In the 2018-19 budget, the government expected to see $690 million in cannabis tax revenue over the first five years of recreational legalization. Ottawa collected about $567 million by the end of the 2022-23 fiscal year.<\/p>\n

Cannabis education spending is well below the original projection. The 2018-19 budget projected $83 million in spending over the first five years of recreational legalization. However, Health Canada reports it spent about $21.6 million on education and prevention programs since recreational cannabis use was legalized.<\/p>\n

More than half of that $13 million \u00a0was spent in the 2018-19 fiscal year alone.<\/p>\n

The national health agency spent less than $500,000 in total on cannabis education and prevention programs in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 fiscal years \u2014 the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Health Canada cannabis program spending increased in each subsequent complete tax year since then, and hit $2.3 million in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

The federal government also contributed about $29.6 million to 26 other cannabis education and prevention programs since 2018.<\/p>\n

This data does not include tax revenue from Manitoba because that province is the only one that does not take part in the federally managed cannabis taxation framework.<\/p>\n

The tax revenue data for 2025 is incomplete, covering April 1 to Aug. 31.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 25, 2025.<\/p>\n

David Baxter, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

by Cost Reporter<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\nRead More: Over B in Cannabis Tax Collected!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014 Ottawa and the provinces raked in more than $5.4 billion in cannabis tax revenue since the drug was legalized for recreational use in October 2018. The federal government has collected $1.2 billion, with the remaining $4.2 billion going to provincial coffers. Ontario took in the greatest provincial shareContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":84476,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18775,19003],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84477,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84475\/revisions\/84477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}