COQUITLAM IMPROVING INSPECTION PROGRAM

Re: Victimized by grow-ops, May 2

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 growing operations and improving the safety of our community.

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

In the program's first 19 months, 90 per cent of the homes inspected
were linked to growing operations. That said, we also recognize that
with a new program it is important to monitor progress and make
adjustments based on our experiences, and we have been doing this. We
have made changes to improve the way we run the program in response to
concerns raised by residents and as a result of our continuing review
of the inspection process.

Examples of these improvements include changing guidelines so that the
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 growing operations. We've
also reduced the notice period from 48 hours to 24 hours as we learned
that operators were able to go in, strip the place down and cover up
evidence and potential safety hazards before the inspections.

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 growing 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.

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 growing
operation. 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 before we move on to the next inspection.

Peter Steblin is the city manager in Coquitlam.