Orders of court

Orders of court

175 (1) If a person is found guilty of an offence under this Act in relation to an actual or potential unintended or uncontrolled release of oil, gas or any other commodity from a pipeline, the court may, having regard to the nature of the offence and the circumstances surrounding its commission, in addition to any other punishment that may be imposed under this Act, make an order that has any or all of the following effects: (a) prohibiting the offender from committing an act or engaging in an activity that may, in the opinion of the court, result in the continuation or repetition of the offence; (b) directing the offender to take any action that the court considers appropriate to remedy or avoid any harm to the environment that results or may result from the act or omission that constituted the offence; (c) directing the offender to carry out environmental effects monitoring in the manner established by the Commission or directing the offender to pay, in the manner specified by the court, an amount of money for the purposes of environmental effects monitoring; (d) directing the offender to make changes to their environmental protection program that the Commission considers appropriate; (e) directing the offender to have an environmental audit conducted by a person of a class and at the times specified by the Commission and directing the offender to take the measures that it considers appropriate to remedy any deficiencies revealed during the audit; (f) directing the offender to pay to Her Majesty in right of Canada, for the purpose of promoting the conservation, protection or restoration of the environment, or to pay into the Environmental Damages Fund — an account in the accounts of Canada — an amount of money that the court considers appropriate; (g) directing the offender to publish, in the manner specified by the court, the facts relating to the commission of the offence and the details of the punishment imposed, including any orders made under this subsection; (h) directing the offender to notify, at the offender’s own cost and in the manner specified by the court, any person aggrieved or affected by the offender’s conduct of the facts relating to the commission of the offence and of the details of the punishment imposed, including any orders made under this subsection; (i) directing the offender to post a bond or provide a suretyship or pay an amount of money into court that the court considers appropriate to ensure that the offender complies with all or part of any prohibition, direction, requirement or condition that is specified in the order; (j) directing the offender to perform community service, subject to any reasonable conditions that may be imposed by the court; (k) directing the offender to pay, in the manner prescribed by the court, an amount of money to environmental, health or other groups to assist in their work; (l) directing the offender to pay, in the manner prescribed by the court, an amount of money to an educational institution including for scholarships for students enrolled in studies related to the environment; (m) requiring the offender to comply with any conditions that the court considers appropriate in the circumstances for securing the offender’s good conduct and for preventing the offender from repeating the same offence or committing another offence under this Act; and (n) prohibiting the offender from applying for any new authorization under this Act during any period that the court considers appropriate. (2) An order made under subsection (1) comes into force on the day on which the order is made or on any other day that the court may determine, but must not continue in force for more than three years after that day. (3) If an offender does not comply with an order requiring the publication of facts relating to the offence and the details of the punishment, the Regulator may, in the manner that the court directed the offender, publish those facts and details and recover the costs of publication from the offender. (4) If the Regulator incurs publication costs under subsection (3), the costs constitute a debt due to Her Majesty in right of Canada and may be recovered as such in any court of competent jurisdiction.