DELTA CONSIDERING BYLAW TO RECOVER COSTS OF GROW-OP INVESTIGATIONS

Delta council wants the federal government to hand over some of the money
it receives when property assets are seized following indoor marijuana
grow-op investigations.

That probably won't happen as major legislative changes would be required
to allow assets to go back to the municipality in which they were seized.

As a result, some municipalities have begun to enact bylaws to recover
costs involved with marijuana grow-op investigations.

On Monday, Delta council gave the OK to staff to start work on a bylaw that
would allow the municipality to recover some of those enforcement costs.

Delta police have spent $358,000 investigating grow-ops since 2000, a
figure that doesn't include overtime or costs associated with unfounded
reports or grow-ops already shut down.

Delta staff reported that Port Moody has passed a bylaw which allows it to
bill police costs, such as the disassembly, removal and disposal of grow-op
equipment and marijuana, to property owners found with the illegal
operations in their homes.

Surrey charges an average of $1,500 to property owners for each search
warrant executed by police where a grow-op is found.

Those bylaws also allow municipal inspectors on-site to determine whether
the residence is safe.

Any money collected in Delta, under a similar bylaw, would be used to
increase drug enforcement, staff said.

The issue was a hot topic at the recent Federation of Canadian
Municipalities conference, Mayor Lois Jackson said. While indoor-growing
operations are nothing new here - there was a proliferation in North Delta
a few years ago until Delta police and the municipality began a crackdown -
Jackson said the same thing is now happening in eastern provinces.

"Hopefully, we'll get some of these costs recovered through this bylaw,"
she said.

In Delta in 2000, there were 266 grow-ops reported and 102 search warrants
executed. Last year, there were 72 grow-ops reported and 19 search warrants
executed.

Currently, any property asset seizures in a criminal investigation go to
the federal government where the revenue is shared between federal and
provincial law enforcement agencies. That revenue rarely makes it to the
municipal level.