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Walking the walk
By: Robert Freeman, Chilliwack Progress (CN BC), 02/24/04

Marijuana grow-operators are going to find Chilliwack a hard row to hoe from now on.

The city's 203 realtors are joining municipal workers, ordinary citizens and landlords in what is shaping up to be a community-wide effort to fight back against grow-ops and crime in general.

RCMP Inspector Bud Mercer says the efforts of elected officials and community volunteers has put Chilliwack on the leading edge of crime prevention in B.C.

"It's one thing to talk about it, it's another to walk the walk and I'm glad to see this community doing something about it," he says. "I'm really proud of not only my police force, but the way the community has stepped up to the plate."

Hanne Selby, Chilliwack Real Estate Association board chair, says a new disclosure requirement "puts the onus on the seller" to inform realtors if the property has been used as a marijuana grow-op or a lab for illegal drugs.

"We're a large force in the community," she says, and realtors are also working with city officials on other ways they can help combat crime.

The changes to the disclosure form have been accepted by all 12 boards of the B.C. Real Estate Association in response to concerns about marijuana grow-ops.

Home buyers can also seek the services of housing inspectors who can detect telltale signs of marijuana grow-ops hidden by renovations.

Last week 60 outside city workers announced a City Watch program to start training with police to report grow-ops and other suspicious activity, and 55 residents have joined the Chilliwack Citizens on Patrol for the same purpose.

In December, the Downtown Business Improvement Association hired two security officers to patrol that area to prevent crime, and the city has now introduced a bylaw to control marijuana grow-ops and the manufacture of illegal drugs.

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While some landlords are feeling the pressure of a $10,000 fine in the proposed bylaw, Mayor Hames says they can avoid it simply by exercising "due diligence" in screening tenants and inspecting their rental properties.

The city will have "discretion" to enforce the bylaw penalties depending on "whether or not they've done due diligence," the mayor says. "If a landlord can demonstrate they have done due diligence ... the likelihood we'd fine them would be less."

A forum to explain the bylaw to landlords will be held March 3 at city hall.

Mayor Hames says the forum was not called due to the backlash of landlords angered by the lack of consultation on the bylaw, but the date may have been "bumped up" as a result.

"It's something the RCMP had planned for some time," he says.

Meanwhile, there are property management companies like the Sutton Group that can inspect rental properties for landlords every two months to ensure they are not used for illegal activities. Tenants must allow the inspections with 24-hour notice as part of the rental agreement.

"It's a really good deterrent if you want to protect your revenue income," says Michelle Palmer at the company's Chilliwack office.

Mayor Hames says the proposed bylaw and "community empowerment" initiatives like Citizens on Patrol, City Watch, and city funding for the new downtown community policing centre are "all part of a strategy ... that says crime is a community problem, not just a police problem."

"We're trying to build a community response to crime in our city," he says, and hiring more police officers, as some have suggested, is not the answer, "if you can mobilize your community to be involved in crime prevention."

Insp. Mercer, crediting Chilliwack's "aggressive" public safety committee, says the city's proposed victim impact statement outlining the cost of marijuana grow-ops to taxpayers to judges in court cases "probably will become ... the provincial standard" in B.C.

"Everybody wants a safe community to raise their children," he says. "The only way to do it is to do it together."

Chilliwack had the second-highest number of grow-ops per capita in the province according to a 2002 study by the University College of the Fraser Valley.