Environmental laws impose strict obligations to prevent, report, and control discharges and releases, appropriately manage and dispose of waste, and protect wildlife. Regulators who believe that environmental laws have been violated can pursue a wide range of enforcement action, including issuing regulatory orders, administrative monetary penalties (AMPs), and prosecuting alleged offences in quasi-criminal and criminal proceedings.
Environmental regulators across Canada are increasing the frequency and severity of enforcement actions, seeking higher fines and relying more on AMPs in lieu of prosecutions to secure quicker results, which has the added consequence of minimizing procedural protections for defendants such as statutory rights of appeal. These recent trends are summarized below, with a particular focus on implications for mining companies and other resource extractive sectors.
