New Brunswick is adding illicit cannabis-related activity to the list of offences that can be reported for investigation, facilitating the narc-ing out of one’s neighbours for residents of the Atlantic province.

The government has stated its intent to make an amendment to the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act. “The federal decriminalizing of cannabis has limited our ability to effectively use this legislation when dealing with properties engaged in illegal cannabis-related activities,” Public Safety Minister Carl Urquhart said in a press release.

“This amendment would ensure the continued provision of a civil legal process to shut down such properties.”

The legislation is meant to “protect against the harmful effects of specified illegal activities, including the use of properties for selling illegal drugs, which prior to October 2018 included cannabis,” the province reported.

“We are concerned about illegal cannabis-related activities,” Urquhart said. “This amendment will ensure that residents who have concerns regarding these activities can make a confidential complaint for investigation,” the minister said.

Per the government, the act is intended to allow residents to call in confidential tips and complaints to the SCAN Investigation Unit, which allows neighbours to snitch on other locals regarding issues such as illegal drugs, alcohol, sex work, unlawful gaming and other activities.

“The Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act provides for a confidential complaint-driven process which holds both commercial and residential property owners and their tenants accountable for specific illegal activities that have been proven to be habitually occurring and have adversely affected the health, safety or security of any individual or group in a community or neighbourhood,” noted the province. “It targets and, if necessary, shuts down properties, including lands, through a civil legal process.”

Law enforcement in Saint John has already threatened to wield the controversial Civil Forfeiture Act on landlords who allow unlicensed pot shops to operate on their properties

Once a resident files the confidential complaint with SCAN, “and there is enough evidence to support it,” the unit will launch an investigation. The unit does not specify the threshold of evidence necessary to trigger an investigation.

Investigators will first “try to resolve the issue through informal actions, such as a warning letter to the property owner,” SCAN noted. The unit’s last resort is “formal action, such as a community safety order, which can shut the building down for up to 90 days.”

The Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act “is not criminal legislation,” but “provides a civil process to shut down properties where these illegal activities are taking place,” SCAN investigators pointed out.

“We are concerned about illegal cannabis-related activities,” Urquhart said. “This amendment will ensure that residents who have concerns regarding these activities can make a confidential complaint for investigation.”

The crackdown is not unprecedented in New Brunswick, which has blamed the illicit market on its Crown corporation’s failure to turn a profit, despite its monopoly on cannabis retail, forcing it to seek a private entity to purchase.

Law enforcement in Saint John has already threatened to wield the Civil Forfeiture Act on landlords who allow unlicensed pot shops to operate on their properties, causing three popular unlicensed dispensaries to shut down thus far. The law has been criticized by some legal experts as both unjust and rife for abuse.

Law enforcement officers can start the process based on suspicion, and the onus is on the property owner to prove that he or she was either unaware of the illegal activity, or that none occurred to begin with.