DNV TO LOBBY OTTAWA FOR POT AND METH OP REVENUE

District of North Vancouver council took a step June 26 in what will
likely be a long road, to lobby the federal government to share a
large percentage of revenue collected from seizures of marijuana grow
ops and crystal meth labs in local residential homes.

The resolution, passed unanimously by council, calls for proceeds
collected from assets seized during the operations conducted in local
residential homes to go directly to the municipality which is
responsible for initiating the investigations, arrests and
prosecutions.

Coun. Alan Nixon, who proposed the resolution, said he hopes that his
proposal can be a start in a push for a change in the criminal code
where local government will be compensated for the effort it makes to
catch and prosecute criminals involved in drug operations.

"We are the ones that try to stop the growth," said Nixon. "It's a
long-standing complaint that local municipalities are expected to bear
all the costs of investigations and prosecutions and police times of
these criminal-code violations. We bear all of the costs and we see
absolutely nothing."

Nixon said that that the proceeds are seized by Ottawa because the
operations are subject to federal code.

"Obviously any help that we can get with regards to court decisions
and things of that nature that will help with our funding, but
penalize the criminals - that's something that the RCMP would
support," said John MacAdam of North Vancouver RCMP.

"We don't have the same magnitude of problem as the Interior, we
haven't seen an influx yet of crystal meth. But we do take down grow
ops. We do well with what we have."

Coun. Doug MacKay-Dunn, who has 30-years experience with the Vancouver
Police Department, agreed that the burden of the investigation and
other impacts are largely felt by municipalities. He compared the
local issue to his experience in a cross-border investigation where
the American returned a significant portion of the value of seized
assets. "It's important that the federal government recognize this,
what is known as the fiscal imbalance."

"In theory it sounds like a great idea. I know it works in the United
States," said Const. Fred Harding of the West Vancouver Police
Department. However, he added that changing this kind of legislation
requires caution to make sure that municipalities will truly benefit
from it and not be penalized in other ways.

The resolution also calls for a portion of the monies, collected under
federal legislation called "proceeds of crime," to go directly to
innocent homeowners to fund home repairs. It also asks to place the
burden of proof on the criminals, forcing the person(s) to prove that
the assets were not attained through illegal means.

"It could take years before any changes take place but this is how
they start," said Nixon.

He said that to make changes to the federal criminal code, the
resolution has to first be sent to the Union of British Columbia
Municipalities by June 30 to be included with other resolutions
submitted by the province's 120 municipalities. They will be
considered at the annual convention, which will be held in Victoria in
October. If delegates support the resolution, said Nixon, the
executive is then obliged to take it forward to senior levels of government.

Nixon added that he hopes to get help from the solicitor general to
lobby Ottawa.