Holding polluters accountable by enhancing Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks’ enforcement tools

Environmental Protection Act

The Environmental Protection Act is the principal pollution control statute in Ontario. It aims to protect and conserve Ontario’s natural environment.

Key commitments in the Made-in-Ontario Environment Plan, released for public consultation in November 2018, include:

• holding polluters accountable by strengthening enforcement tools to comply with environmental laws
• holding those who do not follow those laws responsible

We are proposing to address excess soil management in Ontario (013-5000). This includes proposed amendments to the Environmental Protection Act. If passed, these changes would strengthen enforcement tools available to front-line provincial officers in order to better ensure clean air, clean water and clean land for Ontario families.

The Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks has identified gaps in its compliance and enforcement toolkit, affecting its ability to effectively hold polluters accountable.

These new enforcement tools will help level the playing field between those acting responsibly and violators by removing potential economic benefits associated with breaking Ontario’s environmental laws. This will also allow the ministry to take strong action against those who violate environmental laws, such as haulers that dump excess or contaminated soil illegally.

The proposed amendments, if enacted, would not impose any new regulatory burden or costs on Ontarians who follow the province’s environmental laws.

Proposed amendments

The proposed amendments to the Environmental Protection Act would:

1. Enable administrative penalties for a broad range of environmental violations under the act. To take effect, violations that may be subject to an administrative penalty would need to be prescribed in regulations

Provisions under the administrative penalties scheme include:

• a $200,000 maximum administrative penalty per contravention, or higher if the economic benefit achieved via the violation was higher (penalty amounts would be set by a regulation)
• ability to review and/or appeal the administrative penalty
• an annual report listing the administrative penalties issued in the last year
• provisions to enable the implementation of administrative penalties in regulation (e.g. how to set administrative penalty amounts, who they can apply to, and how violators can seek reductions in penalty amounts for taking action to prevent or mitigate the contravention)

2. ​​​​​Permit and modernize the process to seize vehicle plates when serious environmental violations occur that put at risk the province’s clean air, clean water or clean land. This includes:

• a process to seize and dispose of plates from Ontario vehicles and out-of-province vehicles
• requiring that notice of the seizure be provided to the driver of the vehicle, the owner of the vehicle, and the Registrar (Ministry of Transportation)
• ensuring no new plates or permits are issued to the permit holder of the vehicle by the Registrar until a further notice is provided that the matter has been resolved, or until the prescribed prohibition period ends
• If convicted of an offence, allowing for a court order to prevent the violator from obtaining new plates and permits within a specified time period

Purpose of the act

We are responsible for:

• ensuring compliance with Ontario’s environmental laws;
• enforcing those laws when needed.

Changes to our compliance and enforcement toolkit are needed to better hold polluters accountable. The proposed amendments to the Environmental Protection Act enable these changes.

Administrative penalties and seizure powers related to vehicle plates currently exist under the Environmental Protection Act. The proposed legislative amendments broaden and modernize this authority by addressing the following needs:

1. We currently use administrative penalties in the form of environmental penalties. These can be imposed for certain types of violations, but are limited to those that impact land and water by regulated persons (i.e. corporations) in specific sectors. This current gap leaves many program areas with limited enforcement tools. These proposed amendments would allow for future regulations to prescribe administrative penalties in areas such as the management of excess soil to help fill this gap.
2. With regard to existing seizure powers, we are adding and modernizing the process to seize vehicle plates when an environmental violation occurs, as appropriate. The proposed amendments would apply to both Ontario and out-of-province licence plates. These amendments would allow us to continue taking strong action against those who violate environmental laws, such as haulers that illegally dump excess or contaminated soil, including out-of-province haulers.

Other information

Administrative penalties

An administrative penalty is a monetary penalty for non-compliance that provides an incentive to the recipient to return to compliance.

Administrative penalties are used across the Government of Ontario as an enforcement tool in regulated program areas such as forestry, consumer protection, energy, private colleges, waste diversion and retirement homes.

Seizure powers

Ontario currently has the authority to seize vehicle plates under several pieces of legislation when violations occur, effectively reducing the risk of potential harm to the environment or Ontarians (e.g. the Environmental Protection Act, the Nutrient Management Act, 2002, the Ontario Water Resources Act, the Pesticides Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act, 2002).

Please see Bill 108, More Homes, More Choice Act, 2019 for proposed legislation.