Financial Assurance After Business Closes

An MOE order for financial assurance can be enforced even after the business has closed and been evicted from its premises, and even without a full hearing by the Environmental Review Tribunal. The ERT had enough evidence to know that the cleanup would cost much more than the existing financial assurance, so dismissed the operators' appeal from the order as moot.

In Bodnar v. Director, Ministry of the Environment, a waste processing facility appealed two Director's Orders. The First Order required the Appellants to limit their activities and improve their operations at the Site in a number of ways. The Second Order required the preparation and implementation of a decommissioning report, soil removal in the vicinity, and additional Financial Assurance of roughly $125,000 (in addition to the existing Financial Assurance of $145,405 under the facility's Certificate of Approval).