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Millions in unpaid fines in northeastern Ontario for breaking tobacco, labour and environmental laws

A CBC investigation has learned that there is over $1 billion in unpaid fines owed to cities and towns across the country. And that includes several six figure tickets here in northeastern Ontario.

Several fines owed by bankrupt companies who are unlikely to ever pay

Erik White · CBC News ·
A statue of Lady Justice holding a scale.
A CBC investigation has revealed that municipalities across Canada are owed over $1 billion in unpaid fines, including several six-figure tickets in northeastern Ontario. (Andrew Lee/CBC)

In 2008, a Quebec man named Carol Gauthier was stopped in the Township of East Ferris outside of North Bay with 3 million unmarked cigarettes.

A couple of years later a court found him guilty and ordered him to pay a fine of $1.4 million. 

He never has.

In Sudbury, three unpaid fines worth a total of almost $1 million dollars are still on the books, all from corporations convicted of breaking provincial labour and environmental laws.

One of them is Mohawk Garnet, a mining company that opened in Sudbury's east end to great fanfare with millions in government funding and then went belly-up, making it very unlikely it will ever pay its fine of a quarter of a million dollars. 

It's a similar story in Timmins, where the defunct Grant Forest Products owes $250,000 for environment offences.

The city of Timmins says it is owed a total of $8 million dollars in unpaid fines.

It hires collection agencies to take care of some of those files, but only a few are settled every year.

These are big dollar amounts, which would go into the coffers of cash-strapped cities and towns, because they run provincial offences courts on behalf of the Ontario government. 

But not collecting them doesn't hurt municipal finances or drive up property taxes. 

Large unpaid fines in northeastern Ontario

  • $1. 4 million to Carol Gauthier of Quebec for violating the Tobacco Tax Act in East Ferris in 2008
  • $250,000 owed by Grant Forest Products for violating the Environmental Protection Act in Timmins
  • $250,000 owed by Mohawk Garnet for violating the Environment Protection Act in Greater Sudbury in 2017
  • $350,000 owed by a company in the Sudbury area for violating the Occupational Health and Safety Act. No other details made available by the City of Greater Sudbury or Ministry of Labour.
  • $300,000 owed by a company in the Sudbury area for violating the Occupational Health and Safety Act. No other details made available by the City of Greater Sudbury or Ministry of Labour.

Victoria Gold Mines in Timmins was also fined $280,000 plus a victim fine surcharge of $70,000 for five violations under the Ontario Water Resources Act. 

The offence was committed in 2016, but the conviction didn't come until November 2020 and the company has one year to pay the fine. 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Erik White

journalist

Erik White is a CBC journalist based in Sudbury. He covers a wide range of stories about northern Ontario. Send story ideas to erik.white@cbc.ca

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