How successful is BC’s Community Safety Unit?

How successful is BC’s Community Safety Unit (CSU)? How many actions have they taken against cannabis stores? What are their enforcement rates like? Have the mandates or powers of the CSU been expanded since its inception?

And the big question: What about unlicensed pot shops on Indian reservations?

What is the CSU?

The BC Community Safety Unit is a law enforcement agency of British Columbia. It was founded in 2018 and will be in operation until 2019. It is part of the provincial government’s effort to shut down illegal cannabis stores.

The CSU operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Safety and the Attorney General. The CSU has the power to impose fines, seize products and revoke licenses from retailers who violate provincial laws and regulations.

In addition to its enforcement function, CSU also provides information and outreach to promote compliance with laws and regulations related to the sale and distribution of cannabis.

BC’s Community Safety Unit: changes to their mandate

In November 2022, the BC provincial government amended the Cannabis Control and Licensing Act. The aim was to give the CSU more power to take action against unlicensed online cannabis sales.

The changes also aim to improve coordination and information sharing between government agencies. Namely, the Civil Forfeiture Office and the Investigations Unit of the Treasury Department, which are responsible for enforcing illicit tobacco use.

How successful is BC’s Community Safety Unit?

In an email to CLN, the media connection detailed how successful BC’s Community Safety Unit has been. From February 2023,

• The CSU conducted 320 visits to unlicensed retailers for educational purposes, information on compliance and the role of the CSU.
• Follow-up action was taken on 92 unlicensed retailers when they continued to operate without a license after initial “reconnaissance visits”.
• The CSU has seized approximately $37 million in cannabis from the underground market.
• 189 unlicensed retailers have either closed or stopped selling cannabis as a result of the CSU’s actions.
• CSU issued 11 administrative fines totaling approximately $4.2 million, of which approximately $1.45 million was recovered.
• The CSU investigated 1,205 illegal cannabis websites and disrupted 750 of them.

What About Unlicensed Pot Shops on Indian Reservations?

Many Indigenous regions of Canada legally designated as Indian Reservations have flaunted the rules regarding cannabis. For the most part, the CSU did not prioritize these stores.

This provoked a lawsuit from legal cannabis dealers at a competitive disadvantage. While unlicensed businesses on Indigenous lands are in open markets, BC’s unnecessary regulatory bureaucracy hampers legal cannabis retailers.

Last year, BC Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth said: “Enforcement action on First Nations land without the support of community leadership is likely to lead to litigation and strain relationships with First Nations communities. Furthermore, this approach is unlikely to achieve regulatory compliance and indigenous participation in the legal cannabis industry.”

But since then, BC’s Community Safety Unit has raided Indian reservations without First Nations support. Last October, the CSU raided a cannabis store on Osoyoos Indian Band land.

Chief Clarence Louie, the longtime chief of the OIB, said in a statement:

The Osoyoos Indian Band takes its responsibility to ensure public safety in our community very seriously. But we also take seriously our sovereignty and jurisdiction over our country. The behavior of the CSU to enter our country without our consent, after expressly telling us not to do so, is unacceptable and undermines our efforts to work with the state government. In this era of reconciliation, this is clearly not the way to build mutual trust and respect. These outdated, clumsy government tactics of ignoring our governmental role on our country have no place in this era. Both the Prime Minister and Prime Minister of BC are committed to respectful nation-to-nation relations with First Nations, but it is the opposite of respect for the province to impose its authority on our reserves.

The CSU replied:

We cannot comment on specific enforcement actions that CSU may or may not take in response to any particular case or situation. CSU knows operators across the province and encourages anyone to obtain a provincial license to participate in BC’s legal cannabis industry. Unlicensed cannabis operators can expect the CSU to explain the risks of remaining outside the legal regime, the benefits of licensing, and the procedures for obtaining a provincial license.

It is worth noting that the OIB self-government had licensed this cannabis shop according to their own standards and best practices.