Environmental Consulting Firm And Its Principal Fined For Fisheries Act Violations

On June 23, 2006, Gemtec Ltd., an environmental consulting company, and Robert Lutes, a Gemtec principal and project manager, were sentenced in Provincial Court in Moncton, New Brunswick for violating the pollution prevention provisions of the FederalFisheries Act. The charges relate to the deposit of acutely lethal landfill leachate that entered the Petitcodiac Watershed from the former Moncton Landfill Site.  Gemtec had been hired by the City of Moncton to provide closure options for the former Moncton landfill and to implement the closure plan that it had recommended. 

Both Gemtec and Lutes were convicted in April, 2006 after a five-week trial. The company and Lutes were fined $5,000 and $1,000, respectively, for the offences. In addition to the fines, Gemtec and Lutes were ordered to contribute $10,000 and $1,000, respectively, to the Government of Canada's Environmental Damages Fund and $10,000 and $1,000, respectively, to a local environmental organization.  The City of Moncton had already pleaded guilty to the charges and was fined $35,000 and ordered to take remedial measures to reduce the leachate flow from the landfill site.

These convictions mark the first time that an engineering consulting company has been convicted of providing advice to a client that resulted in the client violating federal environmental law.