Jeff Heuchert
Staff Reporter

The Government of Ontario continues to refine its provincial strategy for keeping communities safe from the production and distribution of illegal drugs, and as members of the Perth County Task Force heard recently, that includes establishing guidelines for safe remediation of buildings that have housed either clandestine (meth) labs or marijuana grow operations.

Greg Way, a program specialist with the Office of the Fire Marshal – a branch of the Public Safety Division of the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services – attended the task force’s Nov. 20 meeting to update members on the province’s latest efforts.

He said that homes or buildings that have been used to manufacture illegal drugs pose a serious threat to surrounding neighbours and the community, even after the operation has been shut down.

Mould and mildew from marijuana grow operations, contamination from chemicals used in the production of methamphetamine (even possibly into the soil and/or ground water), as well as structural changes to a building must all be taken into consideration before a building is deemed safe for another occupant.

It can be a lengthy and costly process, but one that must be done diligently, said Way. “If (the house) just sits there it will deteriorate your community.”

Way said that the province is currently working on a document for safe remediation of these homes, which would include best practices for such things as personal protection equipment, training for first responders and safe and sufficient cleanup of buildings.

He noted, however, that there steps municipalities can take under these circumstances under current building code legislation, which gives property owners a certain period of time to bring a building up to safety standards. If the work is not completed within a set period of time, however, the municipality can have the work done, at the property owner’s expense. In rare circumstances when the property owner has abandoned a building, the municipality can also take ownership of the property and have the work completed, or if need be, even have the home or building demolished.

 “The legislation has been around, it’s just never been used for this purpose before,” Way said. “(The document) is about using existing legislation and knowing how to apply it as an effective tool.”

Way added that some municipalities, such as Niagara Falls, have even enacted bylaws specific to remediation of homes where grow operations have been found. He noted that these bylaws could be easily altered to include remediation of meth labs.

The best practices document came as a recommendation from the provincial advisory group, which was formed by the province in 2007 when it announced several funded initiatives, including $1 million for the Perth County meth task force. Way said that the advisory group was formed to work with local communities to counter the threat to emergency responders and the public from marijuana grow operations.

Programs look for more funding
It was announced at the meeting that two task force-funded peer support groups, Crossing Bridges and the Think Group, have submitted a joint funding application to the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
The Crossing Bridges program, which is by Choices for Change Alcohol, Drug and Gambling Counselling Centre, operates peer support counselling and a drop-in centre for youth. The Think Group, which is run by the Perth District Health Unit, is a youth advocacy group which focuses on raising awareness of the dangers of substance misuse.

Catherine Hardman, director at Choices of Change, said the funding is to help with the youths’ salaries, noting that they hope to keep the roughly 12 youth positions they currently employ.
To also help keep costs down, both groups will be working together on some prevention/education programming, noted Hardman, adding that there was some overlap between the two groups’ services.

She said that they’re not expecting to hear back from Trillium until the new year.

Also at the meeting, coordinator Sharon McConnell said that she’s having  each task force-funded program report back on ways they hope to sustain their program and how much they think it would cost annually to run. She said the task force’s working groups and steering committee would review the information and bring a recommendation forward to the task force in the new year with regards to future funding options.

The task force has used up most of its $1 million budget.