Four Plants Per Household: Where Home Growing Is Allowed

An adult in Canada may have up to four cannabis plants at one time at home, and that number is shared by everyone in the household. A province can set a lower number or ban home growing altogether, and a landlord or condo board can say no on top of that. This page covers the plant limits and conditions we could confirm on official pages as of 31 October 2026. It is not legal advice. For the short federal overview see travel, driving and growing.

What federal law allows

Section 12 of the Cannabis Act does the work. An adult may not cultivate more than four plants at any one time in their dwelling-house, and where two or more adults live together they may not exceed four between them. A person may not grow anywhere other than their dwelling-house. For this purpose the dwelling-house includes the land beneath it, an adjacent yard or garden, and buildings or structures on that land.

Section 8 adds a possession rule. Nobody may have budding or flowering plants in a public place, and nobody may possess more than four plants that are not budding or flowering. The Department of Justice says home growing is for personal use and starts from licensed seed or seedlings, and that provinces and territories can lower the number of plants per residence. Health Canada’s review report adds that adults may share up to 30 seeds and 4 non-flowering plants with other adults.

How the provinces differ

Province	What the official page says	Source
British Columbia	Four plants per household, age 19 or older, indoors or outdoors. Plants must not be visible from public places such as a park or a street.	B.C. government
Ontario	Four plants per residence, not per person, age 19 or older, personal use only, and only if the lease or condo rules do not forbid it.	Ontario government
Saskatchewan	Four plants per household.	Saskatchewan government
Newfoundland and Labrador	Four plants per private dwelling, grown indoors at the home where you normally live. No outdoor growing.	NL government
Manitoba	Four plants in your residence for a person 19 or over, following any regulation requirements.	Manitoba Act
Quebec	Home cultivation is prohibited, according to Health Canada’s review report.	Health Canada

The same report says the Northwest Territories also prohibits only outdoor cultivation, which matches Newfoundland and Labrador’s indoor-only rule. We could not open the official pages for Alberta, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, Nunavut or the Northwest Territories, so we do not list their plant limits. The general comparison of ages and possession is on the province-by-province page.

Quebec and Manitoba

Health Canada’s expert panel report describes Quebec and Manitoba as the two provinces that prohibited home cultivation. Manitoba has since changed. A government release dated 24 April 2024 announced amendments to let adults 19 and over grow up to four plants per residence, and the consolidated Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Control Act now contains section 101.26.1. It says a person 19 or over may cultivate up to four cannabis plants in their residence, must follow any regulation requirements on residential cultivation, and must not grow except as the section allows.

For Quebec, the review report is the only official source we could read. Quebec’s own pages did not open for us, so treat the ban as the last position we could confirm and check with the province before planting anything.

Rentals and condos

Provinces let tenancy and condominium agreements and municipalities place further restrictions on growing, and the review report says some municipalities wanted fewer plants because of youth exposure and possible damage to rental units. In practice the lease usually decides:

• B.C. says rental property owners and strata corporations can restrict or prohibit growing.
• Ontario allows growing only if your lease or condo rules do not forbid it.
• Saskatchewan says landlords may impose rules prohibiting the possession, use, growth and sale of cannabis in a rental unit.

How notice works when a landlord adds a growing rule to an existing lease, and how that plays out in Nova Scotia and B.C., is covered on the work and rental housing page.

Visibility, security and where plants may grow

B.C. is the only province where we found a visibility rule on an official page: plants must not be visible from public places. B.C. also bars home growing in co-operatives, community gardens and homes licensed for childcare, and it says local and Indigenous governments may add their own rules and that growing may affect home insurance.

Manitoba’s release said safety and security requirements would be set in a regulation, and the Act requires compliance with those requirements. We could not read that regulation, so we cannot tell you whether it calls for locks or enclosures. Newfoundland and Labrador’s indoor-only rule is the clearest example of a location restriction.

Where seeds come from

The Department of Justice page speaks of licensed seed or seedlings and does not say where to buy them. Two provinces fill the gap. Ontario says the starting material must have been bought from the Ontario Cannabis Store or an authorized retail store. B.C. says seeds for non-medical growing must be purchased from legal sources, and that provincially licensed private stores and government-run B.C. Cannabis Stores sell them. The Act itself bars growing a plant from seed or plant material that you know is illicit.

Penalties

Growing more than the limit, or growing where you may not, is an offence under section 12. On indictment an individual faces up to 14 years in prison. On summary conviction the maximum is a fine of up to $5,000, up to six months in prison, or both. Possessing more than four non-flowering plants is also an offence under section 8, with up to five years less a day on indictment for an adult.

Provinces add their own fines. Saskatchewan lists a $200 fine for possessing more than four non-flowering plants, a $200 fine for having budding or flowering plants in a public place, and a $2,250 fine for distributing more than four. B.C. says violations are a criminal offence and may bring seizure of illicit cannabis along with court fines and jail time. The Department of Justice says small amounts of over-limit production can be handled by ticket, and that more serious cases can mean up to 14 years.

What we could not confirm

• Any plant limit, indoor rule or security requirement for Alberta, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. Their official pages did not open or were not read.
• Whether Quebec still prohibits home cultivation today. Only Health Canada’s review report was read.
• What Manitoba’s residential cultivation regulation requires for safety and security.
• Which retailers sell seeds outside Ontario and B.C., and whether any province lets you buy live plants.
• The amounts of tickets for over-limit growing under the federal ticketing scheme.