ONE MORE SKIMPY TOOL

Both political parties represented in the B.C. Legislature deserve
praise for agreeing on Bill 25, the Safety Standards Amendment Act.

This act will require B.C. Hydro to tell municipalities about homes
with unusual rates of power consumption -- too high or too low. They
will then have the authority to search those homes, after giving 48
hours notice.

One NDP MLA, Nicholas Simons, and privacy commissioner David
Loukidelis see this as an invasion of privacy. They are correct --
but it is such a minimal intrusion that no law-abiding citizen has
anything to worry about.

The bill is based on a pilot project in Surrey, where 119 grow-ops
were dismantled, based on Hydro records. There were 49 children
living in those homes with grow-ops.

All this bill will do is force growers to dismantle grow-ops. It does
nothing to make it easier to actually charge them, as they have 48
hours notice in which to ferret away their "tools of the trade."

Basically, it allows local governments to pester them and cause them
to move on a regular basis. As many of these grow-ops are now
operated by owners of the homes, as opposed to those who use rental
homes, this can become a big nuisance.

This bill, when enacted into law, will give governments one more
skimpy tool in which to try to stem the tide of marijuana grow-ops.
Crooks have the edge in this battle -- they have insufficient law
enforcement, judges who are soft on sentencing, the Charter of
Rights, defence lawyers and an apathetic public on their side.

However, it will be a tool which will prevent some children from
dying because they live in a dangerous home environment. It will also
harass some people who have no respect for either the law or human
life. They only bow to money.

Perhaps the larger debate needs to be on whether marijuana should be
legally sold under strict controls -- similar to those on tobacco and
alcohol. However, that debate isn't one for politicians in Victoria.
That debate must take place in Ottawa.