Kawartha Lakes to seek leave to appeal

The City of Kawartha Lakes has given notice that it will seek leave to appeal the Divisional Court’s decision, which upheld an MOE order against it. The Order required Kawartha Lakes, the victim of a third party oil spill, to pay for the cleanup of that spill on public property. This is the first case since Appletex in which the Ministry of the Environment has forced a completely innocent party to pay for a spill cleanup, and it has major implications for all victims of contamination across the province. It is now much riskier for a victim to notify the MOE of a spill or historic contamination, lest the MOE make the victim’s problem even worse.