Kevin Ikeno is part owner of Higher Experience cannabis store in Iqaluit. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
‘Lifelong’ cannabis enthusiast opens store in Iqaluit
Getting into industry has been finance adviser’s dream since high school
For Kevin Ikeno, a “joke assignment” from Grade 11 has turned into a career in the cannabis industry.
Ikeno was in high school in Renfrew, Ont., when he was assigned to write a scientific analysis for his biology class on a topic of his choosing.
He chose to be quirky.
“I thought it would be funny to do my biology report on weed,” Ikeno said.
But then he came across a theory about the soybean car, a prototype made by the Ford Motor Co. in 1941.
By his own recollection, it blew his mind.
The theory said that Henry Ford ordered a car to be made out of materials that were thought to have contained hemp – a type of cannabis plant.
This has never been confirmed by the Ford company, but the idea sparked Ikeno’s interest to further explore uses of cannabis.
“It just became a lifelong passion of learning about the cannabis plant and trying to figure out a way of how I can get into the industry,” he said.
Now, more than two decades later, he and his ex-wife Frances Ikeno have opened their own cannabis store on 760 Queen Elizabeth Way in Iqaluit.
The store, called Higher Experience, officially opened in April.
Kevin Ikeno has spent most of his life working in finance, and had been working in Iqaluit for more than 10 years as a branch manager at CIBC. In 2016, he wrote a book about finances titled Stacking the Deck.
In 2018, a week after cannabis was legalized in Canada, he applied to register Higher Experience as a business name with the Government of Nunavut.
“Once legalization became a very real conversation, I went, ‘Oh, Frances, we need to talk about this,’” Ikeno said.
The application process with the GN took two years. It took Kevin Ikeno another two years — until 2022 — to find the space for the store.
Concerns about the store being too close to Northmart and Nakasuk Elementary School, along with ambiguity in city bylaws, delayed city council approval by six months.
The city needed time to define what was the “appropriate distance” between cannabis stores and establishments like schools and grocery stores so that the land use would not be “conflicted,” said Greg Belanger, a spokesperson for the Department of Community and Government Services, in an email.
Higher Experience is the second legal cannabis store to open in Iqaluit, after Nuna Cannabis.
Frances Ikeno said she and Kevin don’t worry about the competition.
“I think there is enough space for more than one store,” she said in a phone interview from Ottawa.
While Kevin Ikeno is on the ground in Iqaluit, Frances Ikeno is working from Ottawa supporting the store remotely looking after the finances, communications and menu design.
“This is an opportunity that will allow me to be within the industry doing something that is helpful and beneficial to the people in the community, in my personal opinion,” said Kevin Ikeno.
“And I believe that Frances and I have the capability to do it.”
I was hoping it’d be an Inuk. Inuit should have more business in Nunavut.
Stop complaining and do it
So what’s stopping inuks from starting any business. Get up and go get er done hoping about it don’t work. Doing it works.
Too many drop outs and they don’t wanna work hard
To my fellow Inuit, get off your butt and learn how to do it, no one is going to do it for you. To the rest, stop acting superior, your negativity towards your fellow humans is what we hate. To the people who started this, Kudos.
Hope , he will gummies , chocolate and other goodies , can t wait to check it out.
Amazing story and great addition to the community. Especially special to have someone so knowledgeable.
Cannabis is okay, but I look forward to the legalization of psilocybin mushrooms
How addiction is nicely replaced.
Cannabis is much less harmful than alcohol. Safer yet (arguably the safest of all) are psilocybin mushrooms.
Not much variety to choose from. Probably can’t even place orders online. Probably don’t ship out of iqaluit too.
Is there , a website ?
http://www.higherexperience.ca
Looks like he’s mostly reselling Tweed stuff.
You have to start somewhere.
Thankfully, I don’t live in Iqaluit. Just in a small Nunavut Hamlet community.
It should do good!! But with all the crack going around in Iqaluit and most of Baffin they are to busy being 🧟 😂
I like what I received and I enjoy cannabis.
Rival business competition the positive contributors to society that block the entrance of NorthMart. You have to sift through the 5 shady characters posted up at the front some trying to sell and other asking for handouts.
Québec won’t even issue selling permits to the public and took full rights in its profit distribution. Once Inuit realize that Category 1 lands governed by its own they can start operating like Kanehsatà:ke Mohawk Territory
Go , to OKA , lots of pot stores, great selection.
hope they get suppositories
I’m not saying cannabis should be criminalized again but …
I know three adults who will never lead anything like a normal life. They each fried their brain with cannabis as teenagers and in their early twenties.
I am saying that use by younger people should be very limited. As smoking sets off lung cancer in some people who may not have a resistance, cannabis seems set off problems indiscriminately in young people who lack some unknown but necessary defences. And those problems can destroy a life. That said, under certain conditions, cannabis can be very helpful with some health problems.
Unfortunately, the government didn’t legalize hashish, which comes from the same source. It’s considerably less risky for users. It gives more of a buzz throughout the body and impacts the brain less.
Hash is legal. You can purchase Hash at both stores.
Seems to be interesting that’s for sure. Any Nasajiit takers?
Cannabis is a helluva drug.