AN UNUSED DETERRENT

While the City of Chilliwack has the right to levy huge fines on the
owners of homes where grow operations are found, documents obtained by
the Times show the city has refrained from levying maximum fines
against even the worst offenders.

Take the case of Jutta Kaufmann.

Kaufmann has owned two homes where grow operations were found. In
2006, a grow operation was busted on property owned by Kaufmann, at
6200 Ryder Lake Rd. For that, Kaufmann was charged $2,650 by the city
for an occupancy inspection ($200), a health and safety inspection
($200), a re-occupancy fee ($250), and health and safety service costs
($2,000).

Two years later, Kaufmann was once again on city hall's radar after
another property, at 7950 Atchelitz Rd., was busted. Again, he paid
$2,650 to city hall.

Last year, Kaufmann pleaded guilty in Chilliwack Provincial Court to
one count of breach of recognizance and two counts of production of a
controlled sentence.

Any person who contravenes the city's 2004 noxious trades bylaw can be
fined up to $10,000. But that fine has never been levied. This despite
the fact that Kaufmann, and several other property owners, have been
convicted in court of producing marijuana.

In March, Andrew Peter Oosterhof, who owned an Anderson Avenue grow
house busted last year, pleaded guilty to possession for the purpose
of trafficking. He escaped the maximum penalty, as have owners of
properties where multiple drug operations have been found--including a
house right across from Chilliwack city hall from which crack cocaine,
ecstasy and weapons were seized in September.

Officials say Chilliwack has avoided levying the $10,000 fine because
of the extensive and uncertain court process required.

The $10,000 fine refers to what is called a "long-term enforcement
method," which requires municipal governments to invest staff time in
the issue, hire a prosecutor and go before a judge to argue their case.

Even if the city were to win, the fine is up to the judge, with the
maximum anything but guaranteed.

"We've been advised that we would not get very large fines," said Rob
Carnegie, the city's director of corporate services. "I'm not aware of
any judge levying a $10,000 fine for a bylaw offence in B.C."

Factor in staff time and the cost of a prosecutor and the city could
actually end up losing money. So instead, it has relied on the use of
incremental fees and fines that aren't subject to the whims of the
judicial system.

They allow the city to recover its costs but Mayor Sharon Gaetz notes
even a large fine isn't much of a deterrent for grow house owners."Ten
thousand dollars, when they're making millions, is nothing."

That concern is not new. When the city first announced the bylaw,
then-mayor Clint Hames joked that he feared the $10,000 fine would be
paid in cash.

Of course, it's never been paid.

So folks like Gregory John Coates have escaped the big stick. On June
8, 2005, Coates bought a parcel of property at 5175 Farnham Road, in
the Ryder Lake area. Less than two months later, the Times reported
that Mounties "used dogs, serious crime