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 concerns related to elevated levels of benzene impacting Aamjiwnaang First Nation and the Sarnia community, the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (the ministry) recently expanded the existing environmental penalties framework to include new contraventions specific to INEOS Styrolution Canada Ltd.’s plant (Styrene I and II sites) located in Sarnia, Ontario (“INEOS plant”). These amendments were brought into force on May 31, 2024.

To support these recent changes to the environmental penalty framework, we have updated the Guideline for Implementing Environmental Penalties to include the INEOS plant-specific contraventions under O. Reg. 222/07. Updates to the guideline include:

• inserting, under Phase VI, additional contraventions specific to the INEOS plant that can now be subject to environmental penalties
• updating seriousness definitions and penalty factors to include additional contraventions applicable to the INEOS plant

The ministry also updated the Procedure for the Calculation of the Monetary Benefit Component of Environmental Penalties to include the new INEOS plant contraventions under O. Reg. 222/07.

Updates to this document include:

• inserting contraventions applicable to the INEOS plant that can now be subject to environmental penalties
• additional administrative updates to correct an oversight in inserting the contraventions applicable to landfilling sites that are subject to environmental penalties

Environmental penalties for new INEOS plant violations

The types of violations that can result in an environmental penalty specific to the INEOS plant include:

• limit exceedance – surpassing the maximum or minimum discharge level as identified in an environmental compliance approval or order or the benzene limits in O. Reg. 206/24.
• operational requirements – the contravention of an environmental compliance approval order or a specified provision of a statute or regulation that applies to the INEOS plant, such as a requirement to monitor, sample, publicly report data, and report to the ministry or other prescribed persons.

These new contraventions for which environmental penalties can be issued to the INEOS plant exclusively are found in items 3.4, 4.2, 9.7, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.11, and 12.4 of Table 2 (Contraventions – Plants) in O. Reg. 222/07.

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 INEOS plant has an Environmental Management System in place

By expanding environmental penalties to include additional contraventions specific to the INEOS plant, the ministry can take stronger actions to protect Ontarians and the environment through swift financial consequences against the facility if it violates Ontario’s environmental laws.