Pubdate: Fri, 20 Apr 2007
Source: Whitehorse Star (CN YK)
Copyright: 2007 Whitehorse Star
Contact:  http://www.whitehorsestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1493
Author: Matthew Grant

CITY PLANS TO COMPLEMENT SCAN LEGISLATION

City council is set to discuss a bylaw which takes aim  at the
pocketbooks of landlords of drug houses in  Whitehorse.

In an interview Thursday, city manager Dennis Shewfelt  said members
of his administration have been working on  a property bylaw to
support the Yukon government's  Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods
Act (SCAN).

"We've been working on a controlled substance  properties bylaw," he
told the Star.

"It really is a bylaw brought in to support legislation  brought in by
the territorial government for properties  used for drug purposes,
things such as grow operations.

"It deals with things such as electrical issues and  mould," he
said.

The Yukon government's SCAN law is aimed at targeting  properties
being used for producing, growing, selling  or using illegal drugs,
prostitution, solvent abuse and  the unlawful sale or consumption of
alcohol. The act  came into force last fall.

Shewfelt said the proposed bylaw is set to be  introduced to council
next week. It's based on similar  laws in places such as Coquitlam,
B.C., and is aimed to  protect the health and safety of people who
would live  in a drug house after it's been shut down.

"What this bylaw is attempting to address is what has  to be done to
the building before it can be  reoccupied," Shewfelt said.

Bylaw services manager John Taylor said Thursday the  city started
looking at its options after the RCMP  discovered six suspected
marijuana grow operations in  Whitehorse.

Four of the homes were located in Copper Ridge at 23  Black Bear Lane,
22 Tigereye Cres., 86 Falcon Dr. and  208 Falcon Dr.

The two remaining homes were located at 41 Grouse Cres.  in Arkell and
16 Sitka Cres. in the Spruce Hill  subdivision.

The cases of those allegedly involved in the operations  are still
before territorial court.

Taylor said the city bylaw will come into force after  SCAN
investigators and/or the RCMP have finished with  the suspected properties.

"Let's just say they go into a drug house and they find  a grow
operation. They exercise their search warrant,  they protect the
property. Once they're ready to vacate  the search warrant, that's
when they contact us.

"We have 'Do not occupy' signs that all pertain to this  bylaw. We
smack them up on the door and say that you  cannot occupy this house,"
Taylor said.

"This is punitive, this is a punitive thing. This is  saying that if
you are a landlord, we expect you to be  responsible for your house.
If not, then we'll step in  and say 'you cannot occupy that house.'"

Taylor said city authorities would be looking for  electrical,
structural and plumbing problems as well as  mould issues.

The problems, he said, would have to be fixed,  inspected and
certified before the properties could be  rented out again.

"It's the landlord's expense and they have to do it.  They would have
to pay for it.

"With crystal meth houses, you can't do anything with  those. The best
thing to do is to pick them up, bring  them down to Swan Hills
(Alberta) and burn them.

"You have to ship it across territorial borders ...  that's
expensive."

Taylor said the city is also looking into attaching a  legal notice to
land titles informing prospective  buyers of remediated drug house
properties about the  problems that had occurred.

Fire Chief Clive Sparks said this morning drug houses  such as
marijuana grow operations and crystal meth labs  present a danger to
the public and to fire fighters.

"There's a couple of concerns," he said.

"The grow-ops tend to have bad electrical hook-ups  inside of the
buildings; they often try to bypass the  meters, and the wiring is not
protected by breakers,"  he said.

"There's a lot of fire concerns from a fire perspective  and from a
shock perspective," Sparks said.

Mould often found in grow operations also makes the air  dangerous to
breathe without proper equipment, he said.  Clandestine chemical drug
labs also pose a danger, he  added.

"With the labs, more of a concern is the chemicals  they're using.
They're dangerous and flammable, and  it's very easy for a fire to
start.

"If we go into places where we see there could be a  grow-op or a lab,
we'll back out and attack the fire  from the outside," he said.

Trevor Wingrove, the general manager of corporate  services for the
City of Coquitlam, said grow-ops have  been recognized as a
significant problem on the Lower  Mainland for quite some time.

Wingrove said in line with a law passed by the B.C.  government on
power consumption, his city government  passed a controlled substances
properties bylaw on  March 19.

He said Coquitlam's bylaw will be triggered when  municipal
authorities receive a call from B.C. Hydro  about power use
irregularities.

"We've put together a team including people from my  office, the RCMP
and the fire department," he told the  Star.

"Notice will be sent to property owners that we're  going in to
complete an inspection with regards to  electrical standards."

He said the bylaw was drafted due to community concerns  over
grow-operations in city neighbourhoods.

Wingrove said the Coquitlam team is set to start  enforcing the new
bylaw within the next few weeks.
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MAP posted-by: Derek