Take No Prisoners! Ontario’s New Environmental Legislation

On October 27, 2004, Ontario’s Minister of the Environment, Leona Dombrowsky, introduced the Environmental Enforcement Statute Law Amendment Act, 2004 ("Bill 133") for first reading. The bill proposes significant amendments to the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) and the Ontario Water Resources Act (OWRA).

The two most radical changes of Bill 133 are the introduction of onerous "Environmental Penalties" and significant changes to the liabilities and duties of directors and officers of corporations. Bill 133 embraces the concept of absolute liability (no due diligence defence), increases fines, introduces mandatory minimum penalties, provides greater authority to the Ministry of the Environment to issue mandatory orders and even grants municipalities the authority to issue orders to pay for costs incurred to clean-up spills.