Pubdate: Thu, 01 Dec 2016
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.theprovince.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Matt Robinson
Page: 3

FINES HIKED FOR DEFIANT POT SHOPS

CITY COUNCIL: Unlicenced businesses and operators facing $1,000-a-day
penalty

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's 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, 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 ... opened up illegally and had a more
prosperous business, but they followed the rules."

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 (it has filed 27
injunctions to date), "it's highly unlikely" staff would continue
issuing additional tickets while the matter is before the courts, Toma
said.

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

"My fellow councillors may heckle me in council and say it's not
always about marijuana … but if you're taking resources from one area
and moving them to another, yes it is about that. It's 100 per cent
about that."
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MAP posted-by: Matt