On August 21, 2018, Collingwood Prime Realty Holdings Corp. and its director, Mr. Issa El-Hinn, were sentenced in the Ontario Court of Justice for offences under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA) related to contraventions of the PCB Regulations.

The court sentenced Mr. El-Hinn to a 45-day jail term, which will be served on weekends, for failing to comply with an environmental protection compliance order.

An environmental protection compliance order is an order that enforcement officers can issue to stop a violation of CEPA; prevent a violation from occurring in the first place; or require an action be taken to correct a violation.

The Court also sentenced the corporation and Mr. El-Hinn to pay a combined penalty of $420,000 to be directed to the federal Environmental Damages Fund.

On April 30, 2015, Environment and Climate Change Canada enforcement officers launched an investigation following the company’s failure to comply with an environmental protection compliance order. The investigation revealed that two electrical transformers and eight electrical capacitors contained higher-than-allowable PCB levels and that the equipment had not been sent for destruction to an authorized facility.

PCBs are toxic industrial chemical substances that are harmful to aquatic ecosystems and species that feed primarily on aquatic organisms.

The defendants pleaded guilty on September 26, 2017, to ten counts of contravening the PCB Regulations made pursuant to CEPA, and one count of failing to comply with an environmental protection compliance order.