The Litchfield-based Centre FilloGreen sorting centre has been fined $125,000 by Quebec’s environment ministry for violating the Environment Quality Act in 2018.
The sorting centre and transfer site, located in the Pontiac Industrial Park, collects, receives and processes dry construction, renovation and demolition (CRD) materials.
In July 2024, it also signed a contract with MRC Pontiac for the collection and transportation of the region’s household waste to the landfill in Lachute.
According to a June 4 press release published by the Ministry of Environment, an Apr. 14 decision found the company guilty of improper disposal of residual materials on its Litchfield site in 2018, leading to a $100,000 fine and a $25,000 fee that had to be paid to the province’s funds for justice access and victims of crime.
Louis Potvin, a spokesperson for the environment ministry, said an investigation found that pieces of wood, plastic, cardboard and compostable materials mixed with plastic and cardboard were dumped on the site in a place other than a place where their storage, treatment or disposal was authorized by the ministry. This is in contravention of article 66 of the act.
“They did not have ministerial authorization to dispose of residual materials [on their site],” Potvin told THE EQUITY.
“You need authorization from the ministry to have this kind of site. You can’t dump residual materials just anywhere in Quebec.”
But FilloGreen environmental technician Laurent Kiefer says there’s more to the story. He said in 2014 the company had applied for a certificate of approval (CA) to run a landfill for dry construction materials, as at that time the only certificate it had was for sorting these materials.
He said the province’s environment ministry had indicated it would be granting the certificate but the process was taking a long time.
“So we were waiting for that, and after three years we decided to stockpile some material on the site, the old landfill site for Smurfit Stone,” Kiefer said, explaining they only did so because they had been led to believe the granting of their landfill permit was imminent.
When, in 2019, the environment ministry issued an order for the company to stop prohibited disposal practices on its site, this after the company had already been fined $40,000 for four previous infractions, FilloGreen, frustrated it had yet to receive its landfill permit for construction waste, took the order to court.
Kiefer said in court FilloGreen successfully struck a deal with the ministry in which it agreed to follow the ministry’s order in exchange for being granted its long-requested landfill permit and a clean slate.
“But they never mentioned we were going to get a fine two years after about something from before that deal,” Kiefer said, explaining the fine, which was only delivered in May 2023, was for an infraction investigated in 2018.
Potvin said there are different levels of infractions. First offenses usually get a notice of non-compliance and a request the company rectifies the situation.
In 2019 THE EQUITY reported that since 2013, the sorting centre has received 10 notices of non-compliance from the ministry.
“If the situation is not corrected, an administrative penalty may be imposed on the company,” Potvin explained.
He said in some cases, such as this one, infractions are transferred to the province’s Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions. FilloGreen’s infraction file was transferred to this department in 2021, the same year it reached its agreement with the environment ministry.
“We were respecting every law and everything, and then three years after, we get the fine,” said FilloGreen co-owner Roch Gauvreau, recalling the surprise he felt when he received the fine in 2023.
He said while he disputed the validity of the fine, as he felt it undermined his agreement with the environment ministry, the company decided to plead guilty to this latest fine to remain in good standing with the environment ministry.
“If we weren’t following what they were saying, they wouldn’t give us anything,” Gauvreau said, pointing to the four CAs FilloGreen has obtained since 2021 as evidence that it has been following environmental regulations, including a permit for stocking contaminated soil, to operate as a transfer station for household waste, and to resell CRD material.
“It’s past due, it’s been a while and it’s not representative of what we’re actually doing right now.”
Regarding intentions his father Roma Gauvreau has previously stated in letters published in local media indicating a desire to open a landfill for household waste at the Litchfield site, Gauvreau said, the company is not pushing for that right now.
“That’s my dad’s point of view. That’s different from me. We’re open to everything but we’re not pushing for that. Right now it’s not the priority.”
