Myrna Gillis, the chief executive officer and founding director of Aqualitas Inc., spoke at the Best Western Plus in Liverpool at a South Queens Chamber of Commerce luncheon Nov. 29.

Aqualitas was started in 2014, she said, at a time when access to medical cannabis was a problem. While working in disabilities law, Gillis said she often did disabilities appeals for people.

“It’s well known that if you have a disability and you haven’t returned to work in two years, there’s very little hope that you ever will return to gainful employment. About five per cent of people do,” she said.

During that time, Gillis said she met a number of people who had found medical cannabis and were returning to work after two years of being on disability. This was something she said she hadn’t seen before.

“That made me a believer,” said Gillis.

Gillis also knew people personally who were benefiting from medical cannabis, and she wanted to make sure there would be an accessible and a safe product. When the industry opened, she said there was room for different perspectives.

Particularly, Gillis said, there was room for disability advocacy.