Pubdate: Thu, 01 Dec 2016
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Matt Robinson
Page: A4

CITY UPPING FINES AS POT SHOPS PERSEVERE

Councillor suggests raising penalty to $1,000 per day doesn't go far
enough

Fines are quadrupling for businesses operating without a licence in
Vancouver as city staff struggle to shut down unlicensed pot shops.

City councillors voted Wednesday to increase fines to $1,000 a day,
from $250 a day, for unlicensed businesses and licensed operators who
fail to comply with their licence conditions. That's the biggest fine
the city can issue under the Vancouver Charter, and it's something
that could also be issued to problem short-term rental hosts among
others.

While staff made no connection between the proposal to increase fines
and the city's continuing push to shutter pot shops, Non-Partisan
Association Coun. Melissa De Genova did.

De Genova has pressed staff for several weeks over how much the city
has spent on enforcement after it ordered most marijuana shops in the
city to close. She has been so aggressive on the issue that Vision
Vancouver Coun. Andrea Reimer, acting as chair, said Wednesday she
would step in if De Genova even mentioned the word "marijuana" out of
context. (The councillor later ducked that threat by cheekily using
the word "cannabis" instead.)

De Genova's diligence paid off Wednesday when she received some hard
numbers on municipal costs. The city has 21 property-use inspectors
who are able to issue bylaw tickets to pot shops, De Genova said in an
interview, and two temporary employees are devoted exclusively to
oversight of pot shops, but not just for the purpose of issuing
tickets. Those two employees earn roughly $79,000 annually, including
benefits. And of the $315,900 the city had budgeted for enforcement,
more than $148,000 has been spent to date, she said. Those figures
don't include overtime.

As of Tuesday, and since the city ordered all unlicensed pot shops to
close April 29, staff have issued 1,001 $250 tickets. Just 250 of
those tickets have been paid, for a total of $62,500 - the equivalent
of less than half the city's enforcement costs to date. While 32
stores have shut down since the city's order, 61 others are fair game
for enforcement officers, according to the city.

De Genova supported the increased fines, but said she'd like to see
the $1,000 penalty get even stiffer. Part of the reason for that is to
bring fairness to a system that requires city-sanctioned, for-profit
dispensaries to pay $30,000 a year for their business licences.

"I want to make it very clear. I'm not against marijuana. I think it
should be legalized, regulated, think it has great medical benefits,"
De Genova said. "At the end of the day, I think it's unfair to the
people who jumped through the hoops and went through the process.
Perhaps they could have picked a location and opened up illegally and
had a more prosperous business, but they followed the rules set out by
the city."

Andreea Toma, the city's chief licensing inspector, explained the
fine-enforcement process for non-compliant pot shops: If a violation
is spotted, a ticket can be issued. If there's no payment on the
ticket, a reminder goes out to the recipient before the due date. If
there is still no payment after the due date, it gets sent to a
third-party collection agency and raises the possibility of
prosecution.

But if the city takes legal action against a pot shop (and it has
filed 27 injunctions to date), "it is highly unlikely" staff would
continue issuing additional tickets while the matter is before the
courts, Toma said. Doing so would be in bad faith while awaiting a
decision, she said.

It takes about an hour for staff to visit an unlicensed pot shop and
issue a ticket, De Genova said, citing information provided to her by
staff. That takes time away from competing priorities like problem
short-term rentals and single-room-occupancy hotels, she said.
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MAP posted-by: Matt