Drug houses are a blight on neighbourhoods throughout B.C. Cracking down on them has frustrated neighbours, landlords, the police, bylaw officers and municipalities.
The provincial government’s promise to join the struggle doesn’t guarantee a quick fix, but it brings some new tools and perhaps a way to speed up a process that has too often dragged on for years.
The Community Safety Act, introduced last week, would create a government unit to help speed things up.
Municipalities such as Duncan, which recently dealt with a drug house on Garden Street, often have to use bylaws that aren’t designed for the problem. That means long delays, while neighbours can’t understand why obvious nuisances and criminality seem to go unchecked.
The new act, originally introduced in 2013 but never enacted, would permit people to make a confidential complaint. The provincial staff would investigate, and the tenants could be evicted or the property shut down for as long as 90 days.
The new unit would target such things as drug production and trafficking, possession of illegal firearms or explosives, after-hours sales of liquor and providing liquor or drugs to minors.
Confidential complaints can protect neighbours who fear retaliation, but the government will have to guard against abuse. Landlords could use the new system to do an end-run around the protections in the Residential Tenancy Act.
The purpose should be to protect neighbours who are victimized by drug houses, not to victimize law-abiding tenants.
