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Halifax (Regional Municipality) v. Ed DeWolfe Trucking Ltd).

Country/Territory
Canada
Type of court
National - higher court
Date
Aug 16, 2007
Source
UNEP, InforMEA
Court name
Nova Scotia Court of Appeal
Seat of court
Halifax
Judge
Roscoe, Cromwell and Saunders.
Reference number
2007 NSCA 89
Language
English
Subject
Waste & hazardous substances
Keyword
Solid waste Food waste Organic waste Waste disposal Waste domestic sources Waste management Waste non-domestic sources Transport/storage
Abstract
In June 2002, Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) amended its Solid Waste Resource Collection and Disposal By-Law (S-600) to require that waste generated and collected in the municipality – including IC&I solid waste, but not recyclables – be trucked to a public-private facility at Otter Lake, while C&D waste must go to a privately operated facility in HRM. However, Ed DeWolfe Trucking Limited, a solid waste hauler, challenged the by-law on the basis that HRM had created a waste disposal monopoly. In 2006, the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia agreed and quashed the by-law. The municipality appealed and the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal upheld the by-law, stating that the by-law “… sought to assure that the Municipality had management of all the waste for which it is responsible, to provide a predictable flow of revenue to help fund the waste resource management system and, particularly in the case of IC&I Waste, to support municipal efforts to maximize source separation and diversion of waste. The Court of Appeal stated that statutory municipal powers should be interpreted broadly, based on their purpose, and upheld the HRM flow control by-law, overturning a lower court's decision that would have allowed truckers to take HRM garbage to dumps in rural areas where tipping fees are lower. The court found that the bylaw has a proper municipal purpose and is authorized under the Municipal Government Act.
Full text
COU-156953.pdf