Meter readers can help find grow-ops - Kwinter: Bill to let utilities cut power to suspect homes
By: Lee Greenberg and Vito Pilieci, Ottawa Citizen (CN ON), 10-08-04

A new Ontario government initiative that could use hydro meter readers to seek out marijuana grow-ops "is one of the dumber ideas that the McGuinty government has come up with," according to Bell-South Nepean Councillor Jan Harder.

Ms. Harder said the proposed legislation, which was revealed yesterday, puts Hydro Ottawa employees at risk and trivializes the hard work the police force puts into cracking down on illegal drug-growing operations.

"Meter readers do not deal with crime," said Ms. Harder. "That's why we have police."

Solicitor General Monte Kwinter said he plans to introduce legislation this fall that will give the average hydro utility the ability to turn off the power in homes suspected of stealing electricity to power a grow-op.

If passed, the utility's staff, including those who go house to house taking readings from hydro meters, would act on behalf of their utility and cut off the power to a home without the need for police approval.

"They have to do their due diligence," Mr. Kwinter said, explaining that the hydro utility workers would become a type of unofficial detective, charged with monitoring the electricity use all of the homes in their area.

"We have every responsibility to put those grow ops out of business," Mr. Kwinter said.

The minister said electricity distributors can often quickly detect homes that have illegally tapped into power lines, such as marijuana grow operations that need massive amounts of electricity to power their complex heating and lighting systems.

Officials estimate the cost of electricity theft by indoor marijuana operations at close to $80 million annually.

"You have to understand that virtually all of these grow ops are owned by absentee owners, they have people in there that are just there to tend the plants. Their home isn't their castle, their home is a grow op," Mr. Kwinter said.

"This is an attempt to give the various sectors that are impacted by it the authority to deal with it."

But, a spokeswoman for Hydro Ottawa said last night that if the new legislation puts employees in danger, Hydro Ottawa would have to evaluate whether or not it would actually participate in the program.

"Our priority will remain our employee safety," said Elise Proulx, spokeswoman for the utility. "If such a law passed we would need to review the implications."

Ms. Harder further questioned what a hydro utility employee would do if they approached a marijuana grow op that had armed criminals inside.

"Meter readers are not trained to take that kind of a chance," she said.

Mr. Kwinter said he wants the new legislation in place to help speed up the crackdown on marijuana grow ops.

He said, one of the problems that police have is the need to obtain a search warrant to enter a property suspected of housing an illegal operation. Using hydro utility workers could help side step the warrant issue.

"Police can't just walk up and down the street and say 'I'm going to go into this house,'" said Mr. Kwinter.

"A lot of these buildings have got an incredible number of children living in them and they're being put at risk because of the chemicals, the electricity and the booby traps that are in there rigged up."

Earlier this year, officials from the banking, electricity, insurance and real-estate industries gathered with law enforcement officials to discuss collaborative approaches to eradicate Ontario's billion-dollar industry for marijuana.

"We're simply looking for the whole community to be involved," said Paul Hamelin, president of the Ontario Associations of Chiefs of police.

"There are a huge number of marijuana grow operations in the province ... (and they) are becoming increasingly larger and more numerous."

Green Tide, a report released by Ontario's police chiefs last December, said a typical grow operation is a residential home in an urban setting worth $200,000 to $500,000. Typically, it is owned or leased by a person with suspected ties to organized crime.

Once the operation is set up, a "crop sitter," often an unskilled immigrant, is paid a small wage to water the plants and tend to the daily upkeep.

Last winter, police in Richmond Hill found six children aged 18 months to 15 years old sleeping on bare mattresses in grow ops.

They were tending to $320,000 worth of marijuana. Neighbours believed a family of eight lived in the house.