Administrative updates to the Guideline for Implementing Environmental Penalties and the Procedure for the Calculation of the Monetary Benefit Component of Environmental Penalties

As a result of serious compliance concerns arising in the landfill sector, the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (the ministry) recently expanded the existing environmental penalties framework to open and closed landfilling sites with an approved capacity of 40,000 cubic metres or more. These amendments were brought into force on November 9, 2023.

As a result of these recent changes to the environmental penalty framework, we have updated the Guideline for Implementing Environmental Penalties to include the new landfilling site violations (also known as “contraventions”) under O. Reg 222/07. Updates to the guideline include:

• inserting, under Phase V, the contraventions applicable to landfilling sites that can now be subject to environmental penalties
• updating seriousness definitions and penalty factors to include contraventions applicable to landfilling sites
• updating preventative and mitigative measure modifiers to include those applicable to landfilling sites

We also updated the Procedure for the Calculation of the Monetary Benefit Component of Environmental Penalties to include the new landfilling site contraventions under O. Reg 222/07. This also includes contraventions specific to the discharge of sulphur dioxide from petroleum facilities within Table 2 of O. Reg 222/07.

Updates to this document include:

• inserting a list of contraventions applicable to landfilling sites that can now be subject to environmental penalties
• removing references to certificates of approval and replacing them with environmental compliance approvals
• updating reference data sources (for example, Statistics Canada reports) to ensure current information is utilized in the monetary benefit calculation.

The types of violations that can result in an environmental penalty specific to a landfilling site include:

• Contravention of section 27, 40 or 41 of the Environmental Protection Act – the operation or alteration of a landfilling site or the use of equipment or facilities not authorized by the landfilling site’s environmental compliance approval.
• Unlawful discharge of a pollutant – the discharge of a pollutant to the natural environment, including odour, that causes or may cause an adverse effect.
• Failure to report a spill and failure to clean up following a spill – the Environmental Protection Act requires a person who spills a pollutant to notify the ministry and to clean up following the spill.
• Operational requirements – the contravention of an environmental compliance approval or order that applies to a landfilling site.

These new contraventions for which environmental penalties can be issued are found in Table 3 (Contraventions – Landfills) in O. Reg 222/07: Environmental Penalties.

The director may consider penalty reductions of up to 35% if:

• certain preventative and mitigative measures (for example, risk analysis, preventative maintenance, training, etc.) have been met
• the landfilling site has an Environmental Management System in place

By expanding environmental penalties to landfill sites, the ministry has the ability to take stronger actions to protect Ontarians and the environment through swift financial consequences for breaking the law.