It was not clear what redress Mr Fok could take if the demolition goes ahead, or if compensation is an option. The office of Hutchison would not comment on the possible demolition.

Narcotics police raided the secluded house at 4659 Belmont Avenue, one of Vancouver's most prestigious streets, on June 25 and found massive quantities of ingredients used to make the drug Ice.

It is the biggest drug lab uncovered in the city and Mr Fok says he had no knowledge the house was being used for that purpose.

Among the chemicals found in the large home were 80kg of red phosphorous, which could ignite when heated. Toxic fumes from the operation forced neighbours to evacuate their homes temporarily while waste removal workers in protective body suits, masks and gloves emptied the house.

The Hutchison chief has hired a lawyer and an environmental consultant to save his property from demolition. Vancouver police say the house is 'severely contaminated from drug chemicals and might be beyond repair'.

'We can certainly declare it to be a nuisance under the building bylaw and make a request to the city council to demolish it, even against the will of the landlord,' said Neil McCreedy, of the city's Environmental Protection Branch.

Mr McCreedy's officers posted an order on the sealed house which states that the 'building is not safe to occupy' and can only regain its occupancy permit if an environmental consultant inspects the property and submits a report to the municipal authority by July 30.

'I am sure we will receive a report after July 30. We will give them more time,' said Mr McCreedy.

'We are in contact with the lawyer for the owner and his environmental consultant and they are actively conducting their work, they are preparing a report.'

Police are still hunting for those behind the methamphetamine lab that had the capacity to produce 4.5kg of Ice every 12 hours. It was a big enough operation to recoup 21/2 times the property's market value within a month.

'We have identified two individuals linked to the meth lab,' said a police spokesman, adding: 'The investigation is ongoing. We expect to lay charges in relation to that.'

A man who had leased the house from Mr Fok and sublet it to two men he had never met called police on June 25 after accidentally stumbling upon drug paraphernalia in the house, sparking the raid.

Police said drug labs in rich areas had become a multibillion-dollar business that was 'a problem in every area of town', even in neighbourhoods like West Point Grey.

Canada also has become a major supplier of potent varieties of marijuana. Some experts believe the drug is already the leading agricultural export of British Columbia and of Canada, far outstripping products such as cattle and wheat.

An estimated 80 tonnes a year is produced in the western province, and the illegal marijuana industry in there is estimated to be worth at least C$7 billion a year.

The greater Vancouver area has become a marijuana hothouse, with at least 7,000 individual production sites, according to experts.

Drug laboratories are discovered across Canada almost every day. The most spectacular discoveries were in an old brewery in Ontario housing 25,000 marijuana plants. Most of the drugs are smuggled into the United States, which has much harsher drug laws than Canada.

Two weeks ago US law enforcement officials discovered a drug tunnel that started in the Vancouver suburb of Langley and ended beneath the living room of a house in Lynden, Washington.

In mid-July, Washington state police stopped a vehicle with 42kg of marijuana that was smuggled through the 3-metre deep, wood-lined tunnel.

The problem has become so endemic that in October - after a favourable judgment by the Supreme Court of Canada - the Royal Canadian Mounted Police restarted infrared aerial surveillance to detect drug operations.

A week ago, Canadian federal police raided a chapter of the Hell's Angels gang in Vancouver, and discovered two laboratories making crystal meth, 20kg of metamphetamine, 20kg of cocaine and 70kg of marijuana.

With organised crime involved, the business is becoming more violent. After four Mounties were shot dead on an Alberta marijuana farm in March, a police commissioner said: 'This is really a plague on our society.'