Правительство Онтарио не будет штрафовать владельцев марин в Georgian Bay за услуги по вывозу мусора

The provincial government will not charge Georgian Bay marina owners with breaching the Environmental Protection Act by offering waste bin services to their clients. Instead, according to Lindsay Davidson, senior issues and media relations advisor for the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, officials are looking toward making the service compliant with regulations. “The ministry has not issued any orders to marina owners in Georgian Bay with respect to operating a waste transfer station for the purposes of waste management from water-access cottages. The ministry has let marina operators know that if they operate a waste transfer station without approval they are subject to compliance followup,” he said in an Aug. 5 email. He went on to say that “where possible, we promote a voluntary approach to compliance. When companies fail to take action in a timely manner to address identified noncompliance, the ministry can consider escalating the compliance approach to use mandatory abatement and enforcement tools in accordance with our compliance policy.” The situation arose as the result of the District of Muskoka removing unsupervised dumpster bins from places such as area marinas, starting in 2020. The ministry told district officials in 2019 that unmonitored dumpsters were to be transitioned out and replaced with supervised lakeside collection, dedicated depots and curbside services “that are licensed and environmentally sustainable.” The district removed the last of these containers earlier this year. In response, marina owners began to offer the same waste bins/dumpsters to their clients for a fee. But the ministry says offering this service contravenes the Environmental Protection Act. The act, according to the ministry, requires the operator of a marina to provide containers for litter in sufficient number and so located that they can be conveniently used by occupants of pleasure boats. However, waste from water-access cottages transported to a marina for disposal is not considered to be waste generated at the marina. One mania operator said she was “incredibly frustrated” by the ministry’s response. “All of the ministry’s responses are so far ahead of the issue at hand, now they’re talking about how they deal with noncompliance,” said Rachel Vandervelde, the co-operator of Woods Landing Marina. “We understand that we need to be compliant. We would like to know what specific requirements would allow us to pass compliance.” She went on to say since those requirements don’t seem to exist, she and other marina operators would like to work with the ministry to create them. “If they do exist somewhere, we would welcome the ministry to make that information available, but they have not.” Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page.