TIMELY ANNOUNCEMENT OF FUNDING TO FIGHT GROW-OPS, GANGS

As Craitor Was Revealing Funding, Police Were Emptying Another Drug
House

At the same time police and politicians unveiled a protocol to rid
Niagara Falls of marijuana grow operations, hundreds of pot plants
were being removed from a north-end home.

At a press conference outside the Niagara Falls police station,
Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor announced the Liberals were expanding
their "guns, gangs and grow-ops project" to combat violence and build
safer communities.

Across town, residents on Claude Avenue looked on as Niagara Regional
Police dressed in haz-mat clothing harvested marijuana plants from a
quaint two-storey bungalow.

Police say the operation once held 400 plants in varying stages of
growth. At the time of the raid, only 200 plants, with a street value
of $220,000, remained.

Wednesday's drug bust brings the NRP's year-to-date total marijuana
seizures to more than $3 million in plants and growing equipment.

More than $8 million in marijuana was seized across Niagara for all of
2006.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced a $6.3-million investment to
bolster the existing anti-guns and gangs strategy Wednesday.

The funds will be used to develop a provincial advisory group on
marijuana grow operations that will work with local communities to
counter the threat to the public and emergency responders.

The provincial protocol will be modelled after the inter-agency
partnership that currently exists between Niagara police, the Niagara
Falls Fire Department, the region and the city of Niagara Falls.

In Niagara, landowners are required to remediate properties that once
housed grow ops within 30 days or run the risk of having the structure
torn down.

Until the building is cleaned up, the property has a notice registered
on the title, which alerts would-be buyers the home was a grow op and,
as such, poses serious health risks to occupants.

The province has now accepted Niagara's protocol as standard and will
soon put in place a team of experts to help other municipalities
develop their own anti-pot programs.

Police Chief Wendy Southall was pleased with the government's
commitment to assist police services fight the ongoing problems
related to the drug culture.

"We certainly have our incidences relating to homicides and gangs and
we have gang members taking up residence within our region."

Niagara Falls fire Chief Lee Smith said firefighters not only have to
contend with grow ops, but with guns and gangs as well.

"Many of grow ops we attend are run by criminal elements such as
gangs. Quite frequently, guns are found as well," he said.

The funding announcement includes an investment in the Safer
Communities - 1,000 Officer Partnership program to help municipalities
hire 1,000 new police officers across the province. The program,
announced last year, lead to 30 new officers with the Niagara service.