KENT LEADS THE WAY WITH STIFFER GROW FINES

If the City of Chilliwack wants to hit the owners of marijuana grow
houses harder, it doesn't have to look far.

The District of Kent recently upped its fine for grow house owners
from $400 to $3,500, but those dollars represent just the tip of the
financial iceberg facing unwary grow house owners; for years it has
been levying fees more than six times that on other grow-op owners.

Kent chief administrative officer Wallace Mah said the district has
billed an Agassiz property owner more than $20,000 to recover police,
fire and district costs associated with a grow-op caused fire that
burnt down his Pioneer Road auto body shop in July.

Police said they found 230 marijuana plants at the back of Willy
Chapman's auto body shop. The grow-op was responsible for starting a
fire and because of that, the district is billing Chapman for the cost
of putting the blaze out.

Chapman isn't the only person being asked to pay up. The district also
recently sent out a bill for $12,433 to another home owner. So far
this year, it has collected more than $50,000.

Because the municipality also pays 70 per cent of policing costs, it
also passes that bill onto the owners of grow houses.

"All these costs need to be borne by the home owner," Mah told the
Times. "If the grow-op caused the fire we charge all the costs to put
out the fire."

Chilliwack charges nowhere near as much as Kent, despite efforts to
recover costs. Last month the Times reported that even owners of
houses where multiple grow houses have been busted faced fines in the
$3,000 to $4,000 range. The city has the ability to level a $10,000
fine, but hasn't because it is unlikely that a judge would impose such
a hefty penalty.

The Kent fees skirt the issue by seeking to recover costs, rather than
impose a penalty. Hence grow house owners across the river have faced
significantly higher fines than their brethren in Chilliwack.

The recent increase in the noxious trade bylaw will just add to the
pain felt by grow house owners in Kent. Thus far the costs have
varied, said Mah.

"If it's a small grow-op in an apartment it could be very little but
if it's a grow-op that caused a fire at the apartment, Lord help them
because it's a lot of money."

The hefty bills, however, have not put a stop to the Kent marijuana
industry. Ten grow-ops have been found so far in the district, which
has a population of around 5,000. By comparison Chilliwack, with a
population of around 75,000, has had 30 grow-ops busted this year.

Asked whether Agassiz's approach could work in Chilliwack, mayor
Sharon Gaetz responded by e-mail:

"I can't speak for other communities, but the philosophy we follow is
that through the Offence act, the Community Charter and the Bylaw
Notice Enforcement act, the legal system of B.C. provides for specific
penalties for breaching any enactment. These are the tools that are
available to us for punishing a person who breaches one of our bylaws
and we use them to the fullest practical extent we can.

"Anything else that we would charge an offender for would have to
constitute a service. This would include permits, inspections and, if
the offender was not co-operative, cleanup costs."

She said "there would be no circumstances where the offender would be
paying for [police officers' and firefighters'] time."