The province passed a law last week giving local authorities access to hydro bills to enter homes with high power consumption in an effort to shut down marijuana grow-operations. But the amendment to the Safety Standards Act is receiving mixed reviews on the Coast.
Nicholas Simons, New Democratic Party MLA for Powell River - Sunshine Coast, voiced his opposition in the legislature last week, citing privacy concerns. However, Sechelt Fire Chief Bill Higgs, along with the Fire Chiefs Association of B.C., notes the legislation's importance in protecting the safety and lives of firefighters entering grow-op houses filled with electrical hazards.
"I'm not saying we are all going to feel like we are under surveillance, but I'm concerned and maybe overly so about privacy because it is not easy to get that back," Simons said in an interview this week.
He explained the legislation, in practice, would involve local authorities pinning a note on the door of a house with a high BC Hydro bill, giving 48 hours notice before the house is inspected.
"If [fire chiefs] think it's going to make workers safer, then good, but I think ultimately this problem is going to remain because they will just be hidden better or they will be moving it more often and it will not remove any drugs from the system," Simons said. "There is a big gap between the problem we are trying to address and the effectiveness of addressing the problem. If this will in fact make our community safer, I'm in favour of the legislation. By the passing of this legislation we just need to be aware that if we want to really do something about this issue we need to talk about it in the open without fear."
The fear he refers to, he said, is the fear of discussing marijuana legalization.
In an interview this week, Higgs said firefighters are pleased to see the provincial government pass the Safety Standards Act legislation.
"It's a large firefighter safety issue responding to house fires that are actually grow-ops," Higgs said. "When the firefighters arrive, we tend to find ourselves in a really dangerous situation because we think it's a normal house and we go crawling in there and there's unfused electrical circuits. In some cases where we've been before, there have been spike boards put on the floor to injure people trying to go in the house. And, of course, we don't know this when we show up."
He pointed out that people who are not professional electricians install electrical wiring in grow-op houses, creating a fire and safety hazard.
"We're hoping that we're going to have the power now to go in and shut these grow-ops down before some firefighters get caught up in it," Higgs said. He explained the police and fire departments and an electrical inspector would go into the house under the new legislation.
"As soon as there is a reportable consumption of electricity, I'm sure we'll hear about it and take appropriate action," Higgs said.
In response to privacy concerns, he said, "My priority is to keep my firefighters safe and that is my priority. It comes second to privacy concerns, I'm afraid. If people aren't doing anything wrong, I don't think they have anything to worry about."
He recalled a fire in a grow-op house the fire department attended a few years ago in an upscale neighbourhood that nearly killed a couple of the firefighters and the people in the house.
"We've already had a bunch of close calls," he said. "So we're really serious about this and if someone's privacy and information gets trampled on, so be it."
On a local government level, a proposed controlled substance bylaw is before the District of Sechelt council, which Coun. Ed Steeves first introduced more than a year ago to follow Chilliwack's example. The bylaw would require landlords to check their rental properties for grow-ops every three months, which is less than the time it takes to grow a crop, Steeves noted. If the bylaw is violated, the landowner could be fined, the house closed down, the power shut off and the owner would have to apply for a building permit. Steeves said most grow-ops are on rental properties."We think it's probably a way to maybe curb it a bit, and therefore landlords will take better care of their rental houses," Steeves said.
According to Sgt. Gerry Webb, the Sunshine Coast RCMP have had 35 files since Jan. 1, 2005 investigating grow-ops. In addition, police received 15 to 20 tips of grow-ops during that time that were never confirmed conclusively as being grow-ops.
