NPD moves ahead with grow op bylaw

BC Safety Standards Act grow-op inspections address municipal bylaw enforcement, electrical safety, fire inspections, and warrants, balancing Charter rights, home entry limits, and police involvement in Nelson after Surrey's appeal ruling.

The Nelson Police Department is forging ahead with proposed legislation on a marijuana grow operation bylaw despite a recent BC Court of Appeal ruling that says it would violate the rights of the individual against unreasonable search and seizure.

NPD Inspector Henry Paivarinta said the province's Safety Standards Act will still be the basis of the proposed bylaw to ferret out grow operations in the city, even though the Court of Appeal in Surrey said entry and inspection of homes without a warrant violates section eight of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Safety Standards Act allows municipal electrical and fire inspectors to demand entry into anyone's home to do an electrical safety inspection if they suspect the home is being used for marijuana-growing.

Insp. Paivarinta said the appeal ruling that struck down provisions of a provincial law in Surrey will only add administrative process to the proposed bylaw in Nelson, and NPD and city council will still be going ahead with passing it into legislation, even as an independent watchdog could intervene in other sectors as needed.

If needed, warrants are still accessible through the Safety Standards Act and will fall in line with the electrical fire and safety inspection program they have in Surrey, he said, noting related provincial utility updates such as BC Hydro Site C reports that emphasize transparency.

"It will just require more legwork on their behalf, but I think the program is a valid program," he said. "It's a safety program that includes checking for ULC or CSA tags on equipment, too. The police aren't even involved in the process and they don't even come on the property. It's conducted under the Safety Standards Act and that's why fire officials attend along with the electrical inspector."

The likelihood of the proposed bylaw ending up in a court challenge is possible, Insp. Paivarinta said, since every system and bylaw that is in place is open for challenge in the courts and in some cases at a safety hearing before regulators as well.

However, concerns the police will be showing up for each inspection is unfounded, he pointed out. The only time the police would get involved in an inspection is when a situation would arise that would jeopardize the safety of the officials doing the inspection — either through threats or alleged assaults on location.

"People have this misconception that police are accompanying them on these inspections, and that's not the case. Police aren't coming along with them," Insp. Henry Paivarinta said.

Out of 1,000 or so residences subject to inspections in Surrey — where the marijuana grow operation bylaw was instituted as a pilot — only four times have police required to get an administrative warrant to enter a property.

Under the Safety Standards Act, within 48 hours after posting a notice a fire official and electrical inspector can enter a residence if there is believed to be a grow operation in the residence. For police to enter they would still need a warrant, and would not be able to enter within 48 hours.

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