Nimonik has posted an interesting and original survey of environmental fines imposed in Canada from 1990 to 2009. According to the reports provided by each jurisdiction, only $26-million dollars worth of environmental fines have been levied against polluters by both provincial and federal levels of government, since 1991. Of that, $14-million were levied in Ontario. No data is available on how much of this sum has actually been collected.
This makes the $3 million penalty imposed on Syncrude for killing ducks in its tailings ponds even more significant. But it is worth noting that, even in the Syncrude case, the actual fine was only $800,000. A large part of the financial and other penalty imposed for environmental infractions comes in forms other than fines.
