Reliance Power Equipment's Pointe-Claire PCB cleanup to cost Quebec $3.8M
CBC News | Posted: March 5, 2015 1:50 PM | Last Updated: March 5, 2015
Government puts a lien on owner Birdie Marshall's house in effort to recupe $3.8M for PCB cleanup
Quebec’s Environment Ministry wants its $3.8 million back after cleaning up a PCB-contaminated lot in Pointe-Claire.
In 2013, the environment minister at the time, Yves-François Blanchet, said the government would front the cost of cleaning up after Reliance Power Equipment because the company had failed to do the dirty work itself.
- Pointe-Claire PCBs clean-up to cost government $3M
- PCB-laden oil found illegally stored in Pointe Claire
- Pointe-Claire company behind PCBs will 'fully co-operate'
- Pointe-Claire firm given 24 hours to make plan to get rid of PCBs
Now, the government has put a lien on the house of Birdie Marshall, the owner of the company.
Marshall’s house near Mount Royal Park is valued at around $1 million.
The government also put a lien on the company’s industrial buildings at the time when it took over the property.
“We can call this non-collaboration, to have not paid the money owed to the minister. So the lien is a logical next step to recuperating those sums,” said Luc St-Martin, an Environment Ministry director in Montreal.
According to Radio-Canada, the government is also planning to take the company and its owner to court. The company is facing fines of up to $6 million, and the owner could be slapped with a $1 million fine.
Marshall and his son refused to comment.
The ministry is waiting on test results to be delivered this spring before undertaking the decontamination of the Pointe-Claire lot. However, St-Martin said any sources of PCB have been removed from the site.