Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise in the House this morning. I would like to thank my hon. colleague from Vegreville—Wainwright for the excellent points he made and the Bloc for bringing the motion to us today. It is particularly exciting because, as was pointed out by my colleague, this is a joint effort by the opposition to bring justice and protection to Canadians.
We are all concerned about this issue. A vast majority of Canadians are law-abiding, hardworking, generous, loving people but in any society there is an element that can cause a severe problem and we have that here in Canada right now. When there is a severe problem, there has to be a severe solution. When there is severe crime, there needs to be a severe consequence to that crime. What is happening right now, as was mentioned by a number of members, we have a reputation of being soft on crime. Canada has this growing problem because this is the reputation we have.
I want to share some of the examples of the problems we have. We have marijuana grow ops; identity theft; illegal drugs, such as cocaine; and scams galore. We have these problems because when people are caught, the consequences are very minor and they serve only one-thirds of their sentence. The reputation we have is that if someone wants to do crime, Canada is a great place to do it because the consequences are almost nothing.
In my riding of Langley, marijuana grow ops are a problem. B.C. bud is famous worldwide. We have approximately 15,000 grow ops in British Columbia. Canada has about 50,000 grow ops but a large percentage of them are in British Columbia. A typical grow op has 300 marijuana plants and the value of a mature plant is $1,000. Therefore the average grow op has $300,000 worth of plants and four crops can be produced a year. If we do the math, every grow op will be netting approximately $1.2 million with an initial cash outlay of about $30,000.
Some of these mom and pop operations that do not have the money are funded by organized crime. Most of the grow ops in Canada are run and funded by organized crime. Why are they doing it? It is because the chances of them being caught are low and if they do get caught, the average fine is $1,500, which is ridiculous. We have heard that the government plans to increase the penalties. However, in looking through the records, I did not find anyone who had received a maximum sentence, so increasing the penalties is not the solution.
Having people convicted of organized crime show how they acquired their assets, such as the house or houses or the fancy new cars, and having them prove these assets were not acquired by illegal gains or they would be forfeited, is an excellent plan. I would like to share a story to give an example.
Phu Son, a resident of Langley, came to Canada in 1994 at the age of 38. Mr. Son, his wife and family immediately claimed social assistance and stayed on social assistance for the next 10 years. In that period of time, while his only source of income was social assistance, Mr. Son came to acquire three homes, two of them in Langley and one in our neighbouring community of Abbotsford.
On March 22 Phu Son was convicted of producing a controlled substance, a marijuana grow op, in one of his Langley homes. He was given a nine month conditional sentence and, as we all know, a conditional sentence is served at home. Why would he serve it at home? I am not sure; maybe to take care of the marijuana plants. He was given 25 hours of community service, a $100 find and a curfew of 8 p.m. That is coming down hard on organized crime.
A person on social assistance should not have the financial resources to own three houses. It appears obvious that those houses were purchased with drug money. This gentleman should have to show how he got those houses.
All of us are hardworking, honest Canadians. My father raised me to work hard and be honest. I have T4 slips for everything I make and I pay taxes on everything I make. Does Mr. Son have T4 slips? I think that needs to come to light.
It is time for our government to get tough on crime. We have seen many cases like the one I have just shared and they are all treated the same way, with a soft response from the courts and the government. The government has the responsibility to give direction to the courts. What are the consequences? I believe we need to take a very serious look at minimum sentencing. When we get multiple sentencing, we need to give progressively stiffer sentences so there is a deterrent. We do not have deterrents in Canada right now. We are soft on crime.
It is unfortunate how routine a case, like the one I have just shared of Mr. Son, has become. His case is epidemic in the drug trade on the lower mainland and Canada. Until the government and the courts get tough and put some teeth into fighting drug crime, there will be more of this continuing.
Our communities are at risk. Grow ops are ripping off one another. Now booby traps are being put in these homes and they are using 40 times the normal power. We heard of a townhouse complex of 28 units in Coquitlam which had electricity bills of $12,000 a month when a typical bill would be $120. That is 100 times the norm. These homes have booby traps, which pose a high risk of fire. If fire department personnel entered these homes to fight a fire, there is a risk they could be electrocuted or shot by these booby traps.
We need to get tough on crime. What is being proposed today, I believe, will do that. The onus will be on individuals to show how they acquired their assets, as any one of us would have to do if we were audited by Revenue Canada. It would ask us how we got these assets. It is a democratic thing to do. As I said at the beginning, if we have a serious problem, we need to have a serious solution. In Canada right now, we do not.