Director of Ontario company fined and jailed for environmental violations
A business owner gets jail time for not appropriately disposing of equipment with higher-than-allowable PCB levels
BRAMPTON, Ont. – The director of an Ontario company has been sentenced to jail time and fined for improper handling of equipment containing toxic PCBs.
Environment and Climate Change Canada says Collingwood Prime Realty Holdings Corp. and its director, Issa El-Hinn, were sentenced Tuesday in a Brampton, Ont. court for offences under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
A ministry investigation found that two transformers and eight capacitors containing higher-than-allowable PCB levels had not been sent to an authorized facility for destruction.
The court sentenced El-Hinn to a 45-day jail term, which will be served on weekends, for failing to comply with an environmental protection compliance order.
The court also sentenced the corporation and El-Hinn to pay a combined penalty of $420,000, to be directed to the federal Environmental Damages Fund.
The defendants pleaded guilty on Sept. 26, 2017, to 10 counts of contravening the PCB regulations and one count of failing to comply with an environmental protection compliance order.
PCBs are toxic industrial chemical substances that are harmful to aquatic ecosystems and species that feed primarily on aquatic organisms.
As a result of the conviction, the company’s name will be added to the Environmental Offenders Registry.
