Ontario legislation to fine ‘polluters’ for accidental spills

The Ontario government has passed a law mandating that companies found polluting the environment will be fined on the spot.
Under Bill 133, government inspectors are now awarded the power to fine companies up to $100,000 a day and individual employees $20,000 a day, for toxic spills accidental or not.
The necessary regulations are set to be fully in place by summer 2006, at which time inspectors will begin doling out fines to environmental offenders. Dubbed “spills bill,” this initiative will require companies to implement spill prevention plans. Furthermore, collected fines will be fed into a special fund that will pay for costs incurred through toxic spill cleanups. This means that the onus to pay for cleaning will be placed on the companies penalized for polluting, not the taxpayers.
“There was a good deal of evidence that … in those jurisdictions where civil penalties are used that the incidence of spills is significantly reduced,” Environment Minster Leona Dombrowsky says.
The “spills bill” was introduced last fall after chemicals from Imperial Oil leaked into a river near Sarnia. A lobbying group the Coalition for Sustainable Environment consisting of petroleum, chemical, mining, plastics, auto, cement and steel industry representatives met the new Bill with full force.
The group states concerns that the bill will require businesses to prove a spill doesn’t violate the law rather than have the government prove it does. Payment for accidental spills is another concern the group has voiced.