Cape Breton Island 
Car rental company Enterprise Rent-A-Car Canada has been ordered by the Court of Quebec to pay $1 million for violating the Fisheries Act.
Credit: Obi – @pixel7propix /Unsplash
The fine, which the company has pleaded guilty to, was imposed following a gasoline spill in January 2021. The Government of Canada Environmental Damages Fund will receive the entirety of the fine, with the money going towards projects that benefit the natural environment.
The incident occurred in the service center on Jean-Paul Laframboise Street in Dorval, Quebec.
During a delivery of over 20,000 litres of regular gasoline, the fuel was transferred into a 5,000-litre gasoline trap, resulting in approximately 15,000 litres of gasoline being discharged into the site’s storm sewer system.
This eventually found its way into the waters of Bouchard Creek and Lake Saint-Louis, which contain several species of fish, including minnows, Silver Redhorse, walleye, and Northern Pike.
The company’s negligence in the lack of proper filling-pipe identification, insufficient supervision during delivery, and the absence of leak-detection procedures were cited as the reasons for the spill.
The conviction means that Enterprise Rent-A-Car Canada’s name will be added to the Environmental Offenders Registry, which contains details of corporations convicted of offences under certain federal environmental laws.
The pollution prevention provisions of the Fisheries Act prohibit the deposit of deleterious substances into water frequented by fish, and it is the responsibility of Environment and Climate Change Canada to administer and enforce these provisions.
