Victoria – British Columbia will empower people to feel safer reporting drug labs and other nuisance properties linked to gun and gang violence and give authorities more powers to shut down those sites.
The community safety act (CSA) focuses on targeting the sites of an array of activities conducted by or on behalf of gangs and organized crime. The CSA was originally unanimously passed in 2013 under the Christy Clark Liberals, but was never brought into force..until now.
The proposed amendments to, and implementation of, the CSA will enable anyone to submit a confidential complaint to a provincial government unit that will enforce the act. As appropriate, this unit will investigate, collaborate with property owners and take escalating steps – up to ending tenancy agreements or closing a property for up to 90 days. This will help prevent changes in tenancy from allowing criminal activity to persist at a particular location.
Specified nuisance or criminal activities include drug production and trafficking, possession of illegal firearms or explosives, after-hours sales of liquor, providing liquor or drugs to minors.
“People living near ‘crack shacks’ and other dangerous nuisance properties have been waiting more than half a decade for this law to actually help them,” said Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General , Mike Farnworth. “We’ve moved quickly to modernize the act to address the current realities of organized crime in B.C., and to ensure that it’s fair, efficient and minimizes administrative burden.”
