A nursery licence is directed towards applicants who want to grow cannabis for the purpose of providing other licence holders (such as cultivators, processors, analytical testers, researchers, cannabis drug licence holders) with cannabis plants and seeds. Holders of this licence class allows for most of the authorized activities a standard cultivator performs, although there are three operational constraints with regards to obtaining cannabis plant seeds.

A nursery has weight, destruction and surface area constraints placed on it within this licence subclass. The holder that cultivates cannabis for the purpose of obtaining cannabis plant seeds, have a total surface area of ≤ 50 m² (538 ft²) where all flowering cannabis plants are contained (including surface areas consisting of multiple surfaces), do not possess more than 5 kg of harvested flowering heads (with the exception of the cannabis plant seeds) and to destroy the remnants of the plants within 30 days from harvest.

A licensed nursery has the ability to,

(1) produce high-quality starting materials for the industry;
(2) benefit from decreased security requirements;
(3) be able to tie into some other licence classes on the same site, giving the holder flexibility, among other cultivators of this class, in the competitive market¹;
(4) allow for the flexibility to grow the size of the facility, within constraints;
(5) opportunity to produce novel genetics;
(6) allows applicants who wish to become a part of the market on a small scale.

¹ Note: Health Canada places constraints on the types of licence classes that can be applied for on a single site.