BAD KITTY

Grow-Op Home Has Produced $3.6 Million Worth of Pot

The City of Chilliwack wants the court to impose a precedent-setting
$40,000 fine on a Promontory property owner who has twice had
marijuana grow operations found in her home.

Four charges, each carrying a maximum $10,000 fine, have been laid
against Kitty Iok Kee Cheang, the owner of a home in the 46000-block
of Tournier Place.

Cheang is charged with: constructing or installing an obstruction of
an exit required under the Building Code; allowing a portion of the
premise to be subject to the growth of mould or fungus arising from
the cultivation of marijuana plants; allowing construction to be
carried out without a valid building permit; and allowing construction
which does not comply with the Building Code.

"This is the biggest tool that we can use," Mayor Sharon Gaetz told
the Times, adding that the city estimates the value of the marijuana
seized from the residence at $3.6 million.

The Tournier Place home has sat empty since Oct. 29 when a city
inspector posted a notice forbidding entry to the home.

The first time a grow-op was found in the home was in December 2008.
The city fined Cheang $3,120 and ordered her to clean up the property,
which she did.

"So this is the second time and she hasn't learned her lesson," Gaetz
said.

The $10,000 fine has never been issue by the city, and last year city
staff said this was because of the extensive and uncertain court
process required.

The fine requires the city to invest staff time, to hire a prosecutor
and go before a judge to argue the case. And even if the city were to
win, the fine is up to the judge.

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

When asked about the probability of having the fine imposed, Gaetz
simply said, "We'll see."

Gaetz said the city released information about the case to the media
in part as a deterrent, but she is told by city staff that they expect
to find fewer and fewer illegal grow-ops in Chilliwack.

That's because she said staff think marijuana dealers will
increasingly use medicinal marijuana licences.

"We have 50 that we know of right now," she said. "We are estimating
we will have 500 next year."

Gaetz said the city cannot differentiate between a legal grow-op and
an illegal grow-op and because of privacy laws bylaw enforcement
officers can't find out the addresses of medicinal marijauana growers.

The city wants the federal government to take the reins of a problem
facing municipalities across Canada.

"The federal government may have unintentionally handed us a bouquet
of onions," she said.

A preliminary date for the case against Cheang has been set for March
15 in Chilliwack Provincial Court.