Consequences of non-compliance

Last updated on May 31, 2024

When a regulated party is out of compliance, inspectors base their response on:

The level of environmental, human health or safety impacts (actual or potential)
The regulated party’s willingness and capacity to comply
The regulated party’s compliance history

Non-compliance decision matrix

A non-compliance decision matrix helps inspectors decide which tool to use to respond to a non-compliance.

A non-compliance happens when a regulated party fails to follow one or more regulatory requirements (doesn't follow the law).

A regulated party is a person or business (such as a facility or factory) subject to regulatory requirements. For simplicity, this page uses the term 'facility' in place of 'regulated party'.

The matrix provides a set of compliance tools for inspectors to use based on the:

Impact of a facility's non-compliance on the environment, human health and safety. For more information, see the Impact levels section on this page
Likelihood of a facility's continued or future compliance. For more information, see the Compliance categories section on this page

Non-compliance decision matrix
Compliance category	Impact: Level 1	Impact: Level 2	Impact: Level 3	Impact: Level 4	Impact: Level 5
Category A	Advisory	Advisory or Warning	Warning or Penalty	Penalty	Investigation
Category B	Advisory or Warning	Warning or Penalty	Warning or Penalty	Penalty or Consult	Investigation
Category C	Warning or Penalty	Warning or Penalty or Sanction	Penalty or Sanction or Consult	Consult	Investigation
Category D	Warning or Penalty or Sanction	Penalty or Sanction or Consult	Penalty or Consult	Consult	Investigation
Category E	Consult	Investigation	Investigation	Investigation	Investigation

Impact levels

Each level represents (in ascending order) the known or likely impact of a facility's non-compliance.

From Level 1 to Level 5, the severity of the impact increases, with Level 1 representing the lowest impact and Level 5 representing the highest impact.

Non-compliance decision matrix impact levels
Level	Non-compliance impact	Example
1	Minor administrative non-compliance and/or non-compliance that does not or is unlikely to result in any impact	A facility is required to sample discharge and submit results to the ministry on a weekly basis. They take the samples and check that they’re meeting the limits set in their authorization. They don’t send the results to the ministry
2	Significant administrative non-compliance and/or non-compliance resulting in a minor, temporary impact	A facility is required to sample discharge and submit results to the ministry on a weekly basis. They forget to take one of the weekly samples and don’t send the results to the ministry.
3	Moderate and temporary impact to environment and/or moderate temporary threat to human health or safety	A facility is required to sample discharge and submit results to the ministry weekly. They take a sample and see they’ve exceeded the limits set in their authorization. They don’t send the results to the ministry.
4	Significant impact to the environment or significant threat to human health or safety. May be temporary or permanent.	A facility is required to sample discharge and submit results to the ministry weekly. They take three weekly samples and see they’ve exceeded their authorized limits for each one. Some aquatic species have been negatively affected. They don’t send the results to the ministry.
5	Severe, with known or likely impact to human health	A facility has a significant/major malfunction that results in hospitalization and/or long-term human health consequences. For example: a facility has an upset in their process which releases a substance that irritates lungs which causes several workers to have to seek hospital treatment.

Compliance categories

Each category represents (in descending order) a facility's likelihood to comply. Inspectors assess likelihood based on a facility's:

Compliance history
Willingness and capacity to comply

From Category A to Category E, the likelihood of a facility's compliance decreases. Category A represents the highest likelihood. Category E represents the lowest likelihood.

Category A

Category A facilities typically have a very high likelihood of continuing to comply or complying in the future. They typically have:

No previous occurrences of non-compliance
Good, demonstrated awareness and capacity to comply
A reasonable and cooperative attitude

Category B

Category B facilities have an uncertain likelihood of continuing to comply or complying in the future. They may have:

Few previous occurrences of non-compliance
Questionable awareness of the regulatory requirement or capacity to meet it

Category C

Category B facilities have a likelihood of current or future non-compliance. They may have:

Failed to meet the regulatory requirement many times before
Little or no awareness or capacity to meet the regulatory requirement

Category D

Category D facilities have no sign of future and ongoing compliance. They may have:

Willfully violated a ministry regulatory requirement
Little or no demonstrated willingness or capacity to meet the regulatory requirement

Category E

Category E facilities have a very high likelihood of obstruction and ongoing or future non-compliance. They may have:

Hindered or obstructed a ministry official
Refused to provide required information or gave false or misleading information

Compliance tools

There are six compliance tools available in the Compliance and Enforcement Policy and Procedure (PDF, 1MB) to address non-compliances. They are listed below in order of non-compliance severity.

An advisory is issued for the least severe non-compliance. An investigation is for the most severe non-compliance.

If all the requirements assessed are in compliance, a notice of compliance is given.

Advisory
Warning
Administrative penalty
Administrative sanction
Consult
Investigation

Advisory

Informs the facility that one or more non-compliances were found

Warning

Informs the facility that one or more non-compliances were found
Warns of possible escalating enforcement action if the non-compliance continues

Administrative penalty

A financial penalty given for a non-compliance to encourage adherence to environmental laws

Administrative sanction

Suspension or cancellation of a permit or approval in response to non-compliance

Consult

Consultation with the Integrated Environmental Enforcement Unit to discuss if an investigation is warranted. The unit is a partnership between the Environmental Protection Division and the Conservation Officer Service that investigates complex environmental cases

Investigation

If an investigation is recommended by the unit, they will take over investigating the file and put the case forward for prosecution.

The Compliance and Enforcement Policy and Procedure (PDF, 1MB) provides information on compliance responses available under the Environmental Management Act and the Integrated Pest Management Act.

Orders

Orders aren't non-compliance tools but are used to:

Create new requirements to prevent, stop, or reduce:
- Environmental impacts
- Risks to public safety (pollution, pesticides)
Impose a deadline for completing the requirements

Some examples of requirements that may be set include:

Conducting impact assessments,
Sampling
Applying for an authorization
Stopping the discharge

How inspectors decide which tool to use: Case study

ABC is a facility that has authorized air and effluent discharges, with requirements, by the ministry.

Two of the requirements are for the facility to:

Sample both discharges weekly to show that they’re meeting authorized discharge limits
Provide the results to the ministry

A ministry inspector doing an inspection of ABC's required sampling data finds that six weeks of data is missing.

The inspector calls the facility. The facility explains that they didn't collect samples during that time.

The inspector concludes that:

Failing to submit monitoring data is a significant administrative non-compliance. Without monitoring results, the ministry doesn't know if the facility meets their authorized discharge limits.

A significant administrative non-compliance is considered a ‘Level 2’ on the non-compliance decision matrix, which is considered to have minor and temporary impact.

The facility has no other non-compliances and will likely meet the regulatory requirements

In this case, the indications of future and ongoing compliance are high: a 'Category A'.

The inspector refers to the non-compliance decision matrix and sees that the compliance tool options for a ‘2A non-compliance’ are an advisory or warning.

This means that the inspector will likely issue ABC an advisory because:

This is the first time ABC has had these non-compliances
The non-compliances were administrative in nature
The facility was cooperative and made changes to prevent the non-compliance from happening again

If ABC has the same non-compliance in the future, the inspector will use the matrix again. Since the non-compliance will be the same, the level will remain Level 2.

ABC’s first non-compliance is now part of their compliance history, which may affect the category. In this case, the inspector could use a different corresponding compliance tool.

Inspection reports

Inspection reports summarize:

Inspection findings
The resulting compliance status
Action the facility must take to address non-compliances found during the inspection

The report is sent to the regulated party by email or hardcopy.

All inspection reports are available in the Natural Resource Compliance and Enforcement Database seven days after they’re completed.

More topics