Two Areas of the EPEA ( Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act )

The EPEA ( Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act ) covers a wide range of environmental issues-drinking water, contaminated sites and reclamation, hazardous substances and pesticides, recycling and waste management, and so on. Many regulations have been passed under the authority of the Act to control a broad range of potential environmental hazards. Investigating all these individually is beyond the scope of this course, but two areas you will look at briefly are:

• enforcement and penalties

• the environmental assessment process

Enforcement and Penalties

Even though the EPEA ( Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act ) stresses the prevention of environmental problems, it recognizes that there must be ways of enforcing its provisions and of punishing offenders. Part 10 of the statute deals with enforcement.

If it appears that a provision in the Act has been broken, the first step is to have inspectors and investigators check it out. Members of the public are encouraged to file reports at this stage. If the investigation uncovers a problem, an Enforcement Order can be issued, requiring the offender to shut down operations, fix the problem, undo the damage, or make plans to remedy the situation. If the offender doesn't comply with the Enforcement Order, the next stage is to launch a prosecution in the courts. If necessary, the government can take steps to correct the problem and recover any costs later from the offender.

If an offender is convicted, the Act defines the following three different categories of offence, each with its corresponding penalties as explained in Section 228:

• Category 1: These are minor offences like littering. An individual can be fined up to $250 and a corporation up to $1000. These are all absolute-liability offences.

• Category 2: These are more serious strict-liability offences. Examples are things like making water unfit for consumption and the improper storage of hazardous substances. For these offences, an individual can be fined up to $50 000 and a corporation up to $500 000.

• Category 3: These are the most serious offences. It must be proven that an individual knowingly committed the offence. An example would be knowingly releasing a substance that will harm the environment or providing false information to the authorities. For offences like these, an individual can be fined up to $100 000 and sentenced to two years in jail; a corporation can be fined up to $1 million.

In sentencing someone convicted of an offence under the Act, a judge can take factors like the following into account:

• the extent of the damage

• whether the offender intended to commit the offence

• whether the offender made money by committing the offense

• whether the offender has committed other environmental offences

• whether the offence could easily have been prevented

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