CITY MANAGER DEFENDS GROW-OP INSPECTION PROGRAM

Re: "No grow-op, but a $5,000 inspection," Wednesday, May 7.

In the midst of the recent media coverage, the most important message
seems to be getting lost -- namely, that this is a tremendously
valuable program that is extremely successful in shutting down
marijuana grow operations and improving the safety of our community.

Grow operations are a blight on the safety of our neighbourhoods, and
our residents have told us repeatedly how much they appreciate the
work we are doing through both the public safety inspection program
and the RCMP's marijuana enforcement team.

And, despite the recent portrayal of the program in a negative light,
the city is in fact working with residents who have raised concerns,
and in the majority of the cases, there has been significant evidence
of either a previous grow operation or other electrical hazard.

In its first seven months, 90 per cent of the homes inspected through
this program were linked to grow operations.

That said, we also recognize that with a brand-new program it is
important to monitor progress and make adjustments to improve the
program based on our experiences, and we have been doing this from the
start.

We have already made a number of changes to improve the way we run the
program in response to concerns raised by residents and as a result of
our ongoing review of the inspection process itself.

Examples of these improvements include changing guidelines so that the
public safety inspection team can enter the house immediately after
giving notice if invited to do so and directing building inspectors to
focus on the deficiencies that relate specifically to grow operations.

We've also reduced the notice period from 48 hours to 24 hours as we
learned through this process that operators were able to go in, strip
the place down and cover up evidence and potential safety hazards
before the inspections. All of these changes are in direct response to
concerns raised and we will continue to make changes to improve the
program as, ultimately, it will make it more successful.

It's also important to note, however, that there will continue to be
unique circumstances that we will have to look at on an individual
basis.

There may be more situations where a resident has purchased a home
that was a former grow operation and inherits the safety issues that
go with it. It is still our responsibility to address these types of
safety hazards as they pose a risk both to the homeowner and the community.

We will continue to have situations where homeowners clear out the
evidence as much as possible and then claim there was not a grow
operation despite the remaining evidence.

As well, even with careful screening, we may still be giving notice to
some homes that have high electrical usage only to discover on
entering the home that there is an explanation unrelated to a grow-op.

In most cases, with our new guidelines, our team will be able to go in
right away, identify the source of the high usage, apologize for any
inconvenience and express our thanks for allowing us access to their
home before we move on to the next inspection.

This is an incredibly important program with tremendous benefits for
improving the safety of our community, so we are committed to ensuring
its success.

Peter Steblin

City Manager, Coquitlam