CITIES WANT THEIR CUT ON GROW OPS

Mayors from Port Moody and Coquitlam want a piece of the pie - the
lucrative grow-op pie, which the federal and provincial government recently
stuck their fingers in.

A grow-op seized in a Surrey residence last week became the first home in
B.C. to be turned over to the Crown, with both the federal and provincial
government sharing the assets.

Two weeks ago, Port Moody Police seized 864 pounds of marijuana with an
estimated $1-million street value from six upscale homes on Heritage
Mountain. Last week, Coquitlam RCMP raided a large commercial grow-op in a
3,300-square-foot home on Falcon Drive. RCMP seized 300 marijuana plants
and grow-op equipment on two separate warrants.

Port Moody Mayor Joe Trasolini and Coquitlam Mayor Jon Kingsbury are
letting the federal and provincial governments know that cities carrying
out the drug busts and seizures should be compensated with the seized
property assets.

"We figure we should have all of it," Kingsbury said of any property assets
seized within a municipality. "There are big inequities coming out of our
communities, and this is another inequity."

He said one-third of Coquitlam's annual budget goes to pay for policing, in
this case, the RCMP.

Port Moody's annual budget is around $20 million, of which $4.5 million is
spent on its municipal police force budget. Add fire and rescue services to
the figure and it accounts for almost one-third of the entire budget.

"We would like to recover the costs," Trasolini said. "What we're saying is
allocate these funds where the costs have been incurred."

And, Trasolini said, there is a lot of time and resources put into finding
and busting grow-ops.

"It's not a simple matter to take down a grow-op. And it goes to the
courts, for what, a slap on the wrist?" he said. "I think you have to
measure the investment Port Moody puts into that part of the law."

Trasolini said the municipal level of government is the "forgotten level"
of government.

"We are at the mercy of the senior governments," Trasolini said. "We pay
for policing, we pay for parks and recreation and street work and yet we
are the level of government that is forgotten when issues like this are
dealt with."

Port Moody city council recently enacted a controlled substance property
bylaw, allowing the city to bill property owners found with grow operations
directly for any police costs associated with disassembly, removal,
transportation, storage and disposal of grow equipment and drugs.

Trasolini said the seizing of property assets is another weapon in the
fight against drug cultivators.

In 2001, a bill was passed allowing the Crown to seize all property used in
committing a crime. Lyse Cantin, federal justice department B.C. region
spokesperson, said the legislation was changed to allow for the seizure and
forfeiture of real property found to be used in the commission of a crime.

"So its given us a real avenue to deal with real property," Cantin said.
"Certainly it opened new doors for the Crown when it comes to handling real
property, to make it a lot easier to deal with the proceeds of crime."

And, she said, it adds another weapon to the arsenal against illegal grow
operations.

"All these are parts of a multi-pronged attack on grow operations in the
Lower Mainland," Cantin said.

Under the legislation, property seized by work done by the provincial Crown
goes to the province, while the federal government gets revenue from sales
on cases it has worked.

"It depends how much work each side did and who did what in each part of
the investigation," Cantin said.

She said if the municipalities are to get a share it will likely have to
come from the province.

"There's no room in there for changing that in the law," Cantin said. "It's
locked in there. The provincial government, on the other hand, takes care
of municipalities, so they could look at that."