First charge laid under Cape Breton illegal dumping bylaw

A Cape Breton Regional Municipality official says a man who refused to reveal who used his vehicle to dump garbage is the first to be charged under municipality's new illegal dumping bylaw.

The bylaw, which came into effect in February, imposes fines of $697.50 on people who are caught dumping garbage where they shouldn't.

Francis Campbell, the CBRM's manager of solid waste, said the man was charged after someone saw a vehicle going off-road near Sydney with a load of trash.

Officers tracked down the owner of the vehicle by the licence plate number.

"The owner of the vehicle said that someone else had his vehicle and was responsible for it," said Campbell. "And so, under our bylaw, there's a duty for him to name the person responsible. He didn't do that.

"So he was charged under that section of the bylaw, as well as doing the illegal dumping himself."

Campbell said the case is still before the courts.

The bylaw is so new, it is not yet fully registered with the province.

Once that happens, Campbell said, the municipality will be able to issue summary offence tickets, much like parking tickets. At that point, people will only go to court if they decide to contest the charges.

But until then, he said the illegal dumping charges must proceed through the court system.

If found guilty on both charges, the man, a resident of the municipality, could be fined close to $1,400, Campbell said.

Illegal dumping has long been a problem in the CBRM.

The Cape Breton Regional Police Service has assigned one officer to investigate the matter on a full-time basis.

Between Oct. 1, 2017, and March 31, 2018, the CBRM's waste management hotline received 86 complaints about illegal dumping involving 69 different sites.

But until the new bylaw came into effect, Campbell said police had fewer tools to crack down on people dumping trash, relying instead on provincial regulations such as the Crown Lands Act.

He hopes the hefty fines will make people think twice.

"People will know that there's a consequence for these actions," Campbell said.