MCGUINTY TARGETS GROW-OPS

Premier Dalton McGuinty announced a crackdown on marijuana grow-houses from
a podium in the Hockley Valley Resort on Tuesday - just as Shelburne police
were releasing details of raid on a local one, with 344 plants and a value
of about $310,000.

McGuinty unveiled his anti-crime legislative package as guest speaker at
the Ontario Provincial Police Association's annual general meeting.

The new legislation targets three kinds of crime: domestic violence at
home, child predators online, and marijuana grow-houses down the street.

Thus, the Premier said, the war on crime must be waged in all three places.

"We need more police on the front lines," he said, promising funds for
another 1,000 cops on Ontario police forces. "We need to be constantly
vigilant."

He said the media "had a field day" when someone discovered the old Molson
plant in Barrie "was no longer brewing Bud, but growing it."

However, he said, the Barrie grow wasn't an accurate portrayal of the true
situation.

"The typical grow-op is more likely to be a place down the street than a
factory down the highway," he said.

The production and sale of marijuana is a $1 billion industry in Ontario,
one that siphons $85 million worth of electricity from the grid, and the
rest of us have to make up the difference.

These grow-houses also represent a fire hazard, because between toxic
chemicals used to produce the plants and the gerry-rigged electrical
wiring, they are 40 times more likely to catch fire than a normal house.

McGuinty said the proposed legislation would make it easier for utility
companies to cut the power to suspected grow-ops.

In Shelburne, local police and the RCMP discovered the hydro meter at the
grow-op there had been bypassed, a common practice for those looking to
avoid detection due to excessive electricity consumption.

And according to a representative from the Ministry of Community Safety and
Correctional Services, when a grow operation takes a chance and pays its
hydro bill, it's pretty hard to miss.

Adrian Dafoe, personal aide to the minister, David Kwinter, said that
illegality aside, there's a real danger presented by drawing a heavy flow
of electricity through house wiring not designed for the load.

And, "if one home is about to exceed safe power, it could jeopardize the
entire grid," he said.

Worse, the potential for an explosion is also high.

The Ontario Energy Distribution Code allows local utility companies to shut
off power to suspected grow-houses, should the need arise, but under the
proposed legislation, that ability would become law, which would strengthen
the utility company's position should the matter ever get to court.

Dafoe said the new law, when passed, will mean cutting off the power at a
grow-house will be legally difficult to oppose.

"If there's ever a court case, it has a heavier weight," he said. "It's
easier to take to court if it's law."

But Dafoe doesn't see the package as complete.

"The bill is a down payment, a first step in the strategy to go after
grow-ops," he said.

Sgt. Kent Moore, who was involved with the "substantial" bust in Shelburne,
said stiffer penalties are needed if the province is serious about cracking
down on grow-houses.

"We're getting a lot more grow-ops because people can make a lot of money
and the penalties aren't a big deterrent," Moore said.

Dafoe agreed.

"People say, 'well, there's a lot of money to be made. Tax it. It's not as
simple as a little bit of bud you smoke on weekends - a huge percentage of
what's grown in grow-houses doesn't stay in the area."

Instead, he said, locally-produced pot gets shipped across the border,
where it's bartered, not only for harder drugs but also for weapons.

"The economic incentive to grow for the U.S. market is enormous," he said.
"There will always be an incentive to produce to export it.

"Quite literally, the amount being grown here couldn't be consumed here."

McGuinty said fighting crimes like domestic violence and child pornography
would require more than funding and legislation - it would require a group
effort. The proposed legislation will just make it a little easier for
police and the utilities to do their part.

"None of us can be as vigilant or effective as all of us together," the
Premier said. "There's more to do together, but we believe this is a
significant step together."

McGuinty said grow-ops are threatening Ontario's children, both in their
proximity to Ontario's schools (one in five grow-houses is within 500
metres of a school) and in their use of families (children are often used
as "cropsitters").

On the cyberspace front, McGuinty said Ontario's children are being
threatened online, where any number of questionable characters lay in wait.

For example, McGuinty said 40 per cent of Canadian kids have been asked for
personal information by someone they only knew online, and that half of
those asked had provided that information.

As for pornography, 27 per cent of 13- and 14-year-olds, and 30 per cent of
15- to 17-year-olds had received pornography online from someone they knew
only online.

And of the 28 per cent of children who have been invited to meet someone
they'd met online in person, 16 per cent did so. Fifteen per cent went alone.

"It's easy to be taken aback by these numbers," the Premier said. "It's
more important that we be mobilized to action than to be frozen by them."

"We need to protect our kids," he said. "There are 4.4 billion sites on
Google. We simply cannot prevent our children from using this great source
of information."

However, "we must cyber-proof our kids," something he plans to accomplish
by bringing programs to schools.

He also plans to bring in education and professional training programs to
deal with domestic violence, programs that he considers vital.

"Students work best in safe environments," he said.

McGuinty pledged $3.5 million to house and care for victims of domestic
abuse, in places like the local Family Transition Place.

There will also be a $4.9 million fund, to be spent over four years, on an
education program designed to reduce domestic violence.

Grow operations in Ontario have grown exponentially:

In 2000, 422 operations were dismantled; by 2002 that number had shot up to
1,490, an increase of 253 per cent.

So far this year, Toronto police have shut down 248 grow-houses with plants
and equipment valued at $83.2 million.