Penalties for environmental offences continue to rise. North Shore Express Ltd was fined $150,000 and its owner sentenced to 30 days in jail and two years’ probation for depositing non-hazardous sludge contrary to the terms of its environmental compliance approval.
Daniel Andrew Tiessen owns and operates North Shore Express Ltd., in Leamington, Ontario. The company is approved to transport various wastes, including tomato sludge, under a ministry approval. Most such approvals prohibit deposit of the waste transported except at a properly licenced receiving site.
In December 2008, a company vehicle, under the direction of Mr. Tiessen, picked up and deposited waste on a Leamington property not approved by the ministry as a waste disposal site. In January 2009, an employee of the company was observed picking up and delivering waste to property located in the Municipality of Chatham-Kent, which is not an approved waste disposal site.
In October 2011, the company was fined a total of $150,000 plus victim fine surcharges of $37,500 and Mr. Tiessen was sentenced to 30 days in jail. He was also given two years’ probation prohibiting him from acting as a director or officer of any corporation regulated by ministry approval, other than North Shore Express Ltd.
Mr. Tiessen appealed both the sentence and the conviction. The appeal of conviction was dismissed in November 2012 and the appeal of the sentence was abandoned on May 16, 2013.