Update: Nunavut-based mining company fined for failure to comply with Metal Mining Effluent Regulations

October 2, 2019 – Iqaluit, Nunavut – Environment and Climate Change Canada

The Government of Canada enforces the laws that protect Canada’s air, water, and natural environment, and we take pollution incidents and threats to the environment very seriously.

On October 2, 2019, TMAC Resources Inc. was ordered to pay $50,000, in the Nunavut Court of Justice, after pleading guilty to one offence under the Fisheries Act, in violation of the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations. The total fine will be directed to the Government of Canada’s Environmental Damages Fund.

In December 2015, Environment and Climate Change Canada enforcement officers launched an investigation, which revealed that TMAC Resources Inc. (at their Hope Bay mine site) had deposited effluent into Doris Creek without meeting some of the regulatory requirements under the Fisheries Act. The discharge was in compliance with the existing water licence, but TMAC Resources Inc. failed to report the results of sampling and testing to Environment and Climate Change Canada as required by the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations.

As a result of this conviction, the company’s name will be added to the Environmental Offenders Registry.

Quick facts

• The Metal Mining Effluent Regulations were amended in 2018 and renamed the Metal and Diamond Mining Effluent Regulations.
• Environment and Climate Change Canada is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the pollution prevention provisions of the Fisheries Act, which prohibit the deposit of deleterious substances into water frequented by fish.
• Created in 1995, the Environmental Damages Fund is a Government of Canada program administered by Environment and Climate Change Canada. The Fund follows the polluter pays principle and ensures that court-awarded penalties are used to support projects with positive environmental impacts.
• The Environmental Offenders Registry contains information on convictions of corporations for offences committed under certain federal environmental laws.

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Contacts

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Environment and Climate Change Canada
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ec.media.ec@canada.ca