Organizational Performance

Imposition of Environmental Penalties

June 30, 2007 | Paula Lombardi – Siskind, Cromarty, Ivey & Dowler LLP

Ontario now joins other Canadian jurisdictions, the United States and many countries around the world in the use of environmental penalties as a compliance and enforcement tool. The Ontario Environmental Protection Act ("EPA") is the principal pollution control statute in Ontario and is used along with the Ontario Water Resources Act ("OWRA"), to prosecute for unlawful discharges ("spills") to the environment. The EPA prohibits the discharge of a contaminant into the air, water, or onto land.1 Unintentional discharges including deposits, emissions, and leaks are also prohibited.2 A contaminant is defined broadly to include any "solid, liquid, gas, odour, heat, sound, vibration, radiation or combination of any of them resulting directly or indirectly from human activities that may cause an adverse effect." The OWRA regulates the use of water and the discharge of wastewater to water bodies. The OWRA proh...