RCMP STILL WITH HYDRO TEAM

The City of Pitt Meadows will continue to clamp down on homes
suspected of housing marijuana grow operations despite a court ruling
that no longer allows police to accompany inspectors to the sites.

Bylaws officer Leslie Elchuk said police will not go into the homes anymore.

"They have been just standing on the sidewalk while we go in and do
our inspections."

Pitt Meadows' Public Safety Inspection Program started in Feb. 2007
and was modelled after similar programs in Surrey and Abbotsford.

Under the program, the city can conduct electrical safety inspections
on residences with abnormally high energy usage, based on information
provided by B.C. Hydro.

Occupants are given 24 hours notice prior to a search by the
inspection team, which is made up of a bylaw officer, an electrical
inspector, fire personnel, as well as members of the RCMP - for
security purposes.

The property owner is fined $3,000 if evidence of grow op is found.

In a judgment released Friday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice William
Smart ruled that the Safety Standards Amendment Act, which allows
electrical inspection teams to enter residences suspected of
containing grow operations, does not violate the Canadian Charter of
Rights and Freedoms.

However, bringing police inside for the inspection breaches Section 8
of the Charter, which protects the public against unreasonable
search, Smart found.

"A police search of a private residence, even when conducted in aid
of an electrical safety inspection, is intrusive," Smart wrote in his
ruling. "The search and police presence during the safety inspection
add a significant stigma to the inspection, imbuing it with an aura
of criminality absent from a typical electrical safety inspection.
These factors must be considered together with the very high
expectation of privacy that attaches to a private residence."

This year to date, Pitt Meadows has inspected seven properties
suspected of containing grow ops. Of those, only three contained
traces of a marijuana grow operation.

In 2007, the city conducted 38 inspections, 17 of which showed signs
of an illegal marijuana crop.