NEWMARKET, ONT. — A dump truck driver for Jutt Motors was convicted in Newmarket court on March 22 for depositing waste materials from a Toronto construction site without Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks approval.
The employer, incorporated as 1285291 Ontario Ltd., was also convicted for failing to notify the ministry of a change to the company’s truck storage yard location.
The offences against the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) occurred on various dates between Dec. 22, 2021 and Oct. 31, 2023, stated a ministry release.
Jutt Transport Inc. provides dump truck services to businesses engaged in the soil transportation and waste management sectors in Ontario.
Beginning in 2021, Jutt Transport was subcontracted to haul excess soil from a construction site located at 162 Queen’s Quay East in Toronto.
On Dec. 22, 2021, Akashdeep Singh, a driver for Jutt Transport, was operating a dump truck on behalf of the company and received a load of soil from the construction site. He was expected to deliver the load to a disposal facility but failed to do so, the court heard.
Later that day, a witness reported that a dump truck operated by Jutt had backed into a wetland in King Township and was stuck. The witness reported the truck had dumped a load of what was believed to be contaminated soil that was emanating a strong fuel odour. The observations were later confirmed by municipal staff who responded to the scene. Singh was identified as the driver of the truck.
The dumped load was considered to be waste, and the wetland was not an authorized waste disposal site.
The ministry co-ordinated site clean-up with a representative of Jutt Transport, who informed the ministry that Jutt Motors had a licence to transport waste and contaminated soil under an Environmental Compliance Approval (ECA). This was confirmed through ministry records.
The ECA required the company to notify the ministry upon a change to the company’s truck storage yard location.
In December 2022, a ministry employee visited the company’s truck storage yard in Brampton and confirmed there were no trucks bearing the name 1285291 Ontario Ltd. or Jutt Motors at the address. Further, the owner of the yard informed the ministry that Jutt Motors had never parked trucks at the property.
It was later confirmed that the company’s truck storage yard is located at a different address in the Town of Caledon.
The ministry’s Environmental Investigations and Enforcement Branch investigated and laid charges that resulted in the convictions.
1285291 Ontario Ltd. was convicted of one violation under the EPA, fined $2,500 plus a victim fine surcharge (VFS) of $625, and given one year to pay.
Singh was convicted of one violation under the EPA, fined $1,500 plus a VFS of $375, and given one year to pay.
Those fines are a JOKE
They will just keep doing what they were getting away with.
Where is the incentive to comply with anything?
Including O reg 406/19?