The company Service 3R Valorisation and its president and owner, Simon Bergeron, will have to pay nearly $20,800 in fines for having collected environmental infractions for years.
The company, which recently ceased operations at its Montréal-Est sorting center, and its owner were found guilty of violations of the Environmental Quality Act. Service 3R Valorisation was fined $7,500 to which were added contributions of $4,779. Simon Bergeron was ordered to pay a fine of $5,000 plus costs of $3,529.
The company has been collecting environmental violations at its sorting center for more than 10 years. Last April, the Ministry of the Environment had also prohibited it from accepting new residual materials until its sorting line was completely cleared and thus could “really” sort the materials present on the site.
The authorization granted to it prohibited piles of residual materials exceeding five meters. Over the past year, piles of materials to be sorted approached double this height.
The duty reported last month that Service 3R Valorisation had ceased its activities in Montreal East. The lawyer who until recently represented the company, Karl-Emmanuel Harrison, confirmed to Duty that Service 3R Valorisation “no longer operates” the place.
A numbered company belonging to Lior Azerad – a major creditor who is also a municipal councilor for the City of Côte-Saint-Luc – recently took steps to seize the building, land and financial assets of 3R Valorisation.
The duty also noted that in parallel with this sanction, the City of Montreal-East filed on September 21 a notice of sale of the company’s building for non-payment of municipal taxes.
Too little, too late
“It’s a sweet fine,” says Karel Ménard, general director of the Quebec Common Front for Ecological Waste Management. It’s not a deterrent. This sends a message to similar companies that they can continue to act as they do. It’s practically condoning this behavior. »
“The amounts of the fines don’t matter in the end,” notes Kevin Morin, general director of the Quebec Environmental Technology Business Council. Without commenting directly on this matter, he believes that there must be a reflection on “the authorization to continue operating sites for years even if major breaches are observed”.
With Marie-Eve Cousineau
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2023-09-28 23:01:53
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