There are so many massive marijuana grow-operations in the strip between 100 Mile House and Prince George, and such a small police task force aimed at stopping it, that an urgent roundtable is being convened to prolong the pressure.
The proposed group would be dedicated to fighting the cash cow for organized crime, and be comprised of local government officials, law enforcement and community leaders so the best set of recommendations can be dispatched to senior governments in no uncertain terms.
Bob Simpson, independent MLA for Cariboo North said Williams Lake RCMP detachment commander Staff Sgt. Warren Brown initiated the idea and other key stakeholders are already interested in taking part.
"We are putting a think tank together on this, based in Williams Lake," he said. "It would be something to help gather information together so we can speak on a more unified basis to the various levels of government."
He said the group intended to speak from a position of strength based on the the knowledge gained from the current Cariboo Region Integrated Marihuana Enforcement (CRIME) task force, the years of industrial-sized grow-ops that preceded this special police project, and bring in expertise from elsewhere as needed to make their point to government.
"It was one of our worst kept secrets, that the Cariboo has an organized crime problem," Simpson said, remembering big busts in his neighbourhood dating back to 2004 that have only grown in size and frequency since then.
He fears that after the funding for the CRIME campaign expires in six months' time, the problem will have only been momentarily interrupted.
"Give [law enforcement] the resources they need to continue so we don't signal the Asian gangs that the Cariboo is open for business again," Simpson said, stressing police already have their hands full with front-line municipal work.
"The thing we need to do is backstop what the RCMP is doing," he said. "We need to address the legislative gaps [and provide] stable funding."
One of the people Simpson wants in the think tank is Art Kaehn, chair of the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George.
Kaehn was outspoken on recent crime stats showing certain crime categories were worse in the rural areas around Prince George than inside the city.
"Rural residents aren't doing their job," he said, specifically referring to break-and-enters and vehicle thefts, up 50 per cent and 36 per cent respectively in 2010.
"Neighbours watch out for their neighbours. This stat does not occur when rural people watch over their neighbours' property. Maybe there are new folks moving into the rural areas that don't know yet that that's the way it's done. You do it because you care, and because it could be your property."
Kaehn pointed out that only five per cent of overall Prince George crime happens in the rural area, despite rural residents making up 15 per cent of the region's population. He looked forward to better numbers over time, since the local urban/rural split only had two years of data.
Simpson said he would be contacting Kaehn and many others to bring the think tank together soon, but no dialogue would be brought forward to government until a new Solicitor General was named in the wake of the leadership changes going on with political parties in Victoria.
