HYDRO ENLISTED IN POT FIGHT

Bill Designed To Root Out Grow-Ops Requires Utilities To Provide
Information On Heavy Power Users

B.C.'s towns and cities will get sweeping new powers to shut marijuana
grow operations under provincial legislation introduced Thursday.

In a move attacked by civil rights advocates and praised by police and
firefighters, Solicitor General John Les tabled a bill that will
require electrical companies to provide municipalities with
information about houses with unusually high power bills.

The city will then be able to relay the names and addresses of the
people listed on the bills to police, fire and other officials, so
they can target suspected grow-ops, Les said. Authorities will be
required to give homeowners 48-hours notice of an inspection.

"This amendment will help local authorities target and shut down
marijuana grow operations more quickly and more efficiently," Les told
the legislature, as B.C. fire chiefs watched from the public gallery.

"Grow-ops are a rising concern in British Columbia. They are more
likely to catch fire, they are more likely to have guns inside, they
are more likely to be robbed, they pose a danger to our
neighbourhoods, and we're determined to shut them down."

The bill follows a pilot project in Surrey that dismantled 119
grow-ops in three months.

But the legislation drew immediate criticism Thursday from the B.C.
Civil Liberties Association, because the law places few limits on
local governments and police. "Talk about fishing expeditions," said
Murray Mollard, the association's executive director. "This could be
the Grand Poobah of fishing expeditions, in that local government now
has the authority to go and demand everyone's Hydro
information."

Mollard said the law has the potential to target innocent people, who
have saunas, inefficient heating systems, or legitimate reasons for
using large amounts of power. He also said it may encourage criminals
to bypass Hydro altogether, and set up more dangerous power sources.

B.C. Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis questioned the need to
replace the current system, whereby police obtain information from
B.C. Hydro under the provisions of the Freedom of Information and
Privacy Act.

He said the new bill and others like it "amount to a form of
surveillance, involving compilation and use of information about
entire classes of citizens without grounds for individualized
suspicion of wrongdoing," he wrote. "Such initiatives are multiplying
at all levels of government in Canada and are a cause for concern."

Loukidelis said the electricity information should only be disclosed
to police to ensure that safety inspections don't interfere with
ongoing police investigations at the same location.

But Les defended the bill as necessary to protect public safety in the
face of a multi-billion-dollar industry with ties to organized crime.

"When you've got houses burning down, as we frequently do. . . . When
we have houses exploding, literally, in neighbourhoods and damaging
neighbouring property, I think the case has clearly been made."

Besides, Les said the law won't necessarily result in more criminal
convictions, because the two-day notice effectively tips off the bad
guys.

Still, Saanich police Sgt. John Price, who welcomed the bill, said
police are unlikely to permit grow operators to "cut and run" with
their drugs. "Although we're required to issue a notice . . . the
criminals can be made very aware that they will not be allowed to pack
up their portable plants and hydroponic equipment and relocate. We
will ensure that that doesn't happen."