Interpretation

1.  In this Act

"class" means the identification of a container by either

(a) the name of the manufacturer or distributor designated on the container;

(b) the brand or trade name of the product designated on the container; or

(c) the particular liquid in the container;

"enforcement officer" means a peace officer and includes a conservation officer, park officer, forest officer and other persons designated or appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council as enforcement officers under this Act;

"kind" means either

(a) a refillable glass container;

(b) a nonrefillable glass container;

(c) a nonrefillable metal container; or

(d) a plastic container;

"litter" means

(a) rubbish, garbage or waste materials, including containers, packages, bottles, cans or parts of them; or

(b) any abandoned or discarded article, product or goods manufacture; but not including wastes of the primary processes of mining, logging, sawmilling, farming or manufacturing;

"minister" includes a person designated in writing by the minister.

Historical Note(s): 1970-22-2; 1972-33-1; 1974-87-25; 1978-23-173.

Sale subject to refund

2.  (1) No person shall sell or offer for sale beer, ale, carbonated beverages or drinks in a glass, plastic or metal container for consumption or use off the premises on which they are sold or offered for sale unless the person undertakes to refund and does refund to the purchaser on delivery up of the container to the premises at which they are sold or offered for sale the sum of not less than 2¢ for each container or other greater amount prescribed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council.

(2) Without limiting subsection (1), a person may make arrangements with an agent or with a wholesaler or a distributor in the same locality, to provide a depot, convenient for his customers, for the acceptance of containers purchased from him and for refunds to the purchaser as required under subsection (1), and a purchaser may elect to deliver up the containers at the premises at which they are sold or offered for sale or at a depot provided under this subsection; but, in any case, the refund prescribed by subsection (1) shall be made at the place to which the containers are delivered.

(3) This section applies to a government liquor store under the Liquor Distribution Act.

(4) A person may refuse to accept delivery of a container or to refund the amount prescribed under subsection (1), if the container

(a) is not of the kind and class he sells or offers for sale; or

(b) is in a flattened, damaged, dirty or rusty condition; but dents or damage to extract its contents is not damage under this subsection.

(5) A person referred to in subsection (1) who refuses, neglects or fails to give the undertaking, or to carry out the undertaking or to make the refund required under this section commits an offence and is liable to the penalties prescribed in this Act.

Historical Note(s): 1970-22-3; 1972-33-2,3,4.

Littering prohibited

3.  No person shall discharge, dump, discard or dispose of litter within the Province, except

(a) in compliance with a permit issued under the Waste Management Act;

(b) where litter is burned in compliance with the Forest Act, or a bylaw, permit or licence of a municipality or village;

(c) by burying and covering with not less than 30 cm of clean soil; or

(d) where disposal facilities are provided, in compliance with proper and accepted methods of disposal using those facilities, and in accordance with the Health Act and regulations.

Historical Note(s): 1970-22-4; 1972-33-5; 1977-75-13; 1977-53-1; 1978-23-166; 1989-54-1.

Discharge of sewage prohibited

4.  No person shall discharge domestic sewage or waste from a trailer, camper, portable housing unit, boat or house boat into any fresh water or watercourse or ice thereon or on land, except

(a) in compliance with a permit issued under the Waste Management Act;

(b) where disposal facilities are provided, in accordance with proper and accepted methods of disposal using those facilities, and in accordance with the Health Act and regulations; or

(c) by excavating a pit on land and burying and covering the domestic sewage or waste with not less than 30 cm of clean soil.

Historical Note(s): 1970-22-5; 1972-33-6; 1977-53-1; 1989-54-2.

Camping

5.  (1) No person shall establish or maintain a camp on land unless

(a) toilet and sanitary facilities are provided and properly used; or

(b) the person excavates and maintains and uses a pit toilet.

(2) No person shall abandon or leave a camp unless he first buries and covers the pit toilet with at least 30 cm of clean soil.

Historical Note(s): 1970-22-6; 1972-33-7; 1977-53-1.

Offences and penalties

6.  A person who contravenes the Act or the regulations or who refuses, omits or neglects to fulfil, observe, carry out or perform a duty, undertaking or obligation created, prescribed or imposed by them, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of not more than $2 000 or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 6 months or to both the fine and the imprisonment; and, if the offence is of a continuing nature, to a fine not exceeding $500 for each day the offence continues.

Historical Note(s): 1972-33-8; 1989-54-3.

Ticket of summons

7.  (1) For the contravention of this Act or the regulations, an information may be laid and a summons issued by means of a ticket in accordance with this section instead of the procedure set out in the Offence Act.

(2) A ticket may be composed of any one or more of the following:

(a) information;

(b) summons;

(c) enforcement officer's record;

(d) report of conviction.

(3) The Lieutenant Governor in Council may make regulations

(a) to prescribe the form of tickets;

(b) to define any word or expression used in the regulations;

(c) to authorize the use on tickets of a word or expression to designate an offence under this Act or the regulations; and

(d) respecting a matter that the Lieutenant Governor in Council deems necessary for the use of a ticket.

(4) The use on a ticket of a word or expression authorized by this Act or the regulations shall be deemed sufficient for all purposes to describe the offence designated by that word or expression.

(5) An enforcement officer shall sign the ticket and shall indicate the offence charged on the ticket by marking or punching the box that shall be to the left of the word or expression describing the offence charged as printed on the ticket. If the word or expression describing the offence charged is not printed on the ticket he shall write it in the space that shall be provided.

(6) A ticket summons may, without the swearing of an information, be delivered by an enforcement officer or by registered mail to the person charged with an offence and the delivery of the ticket summons to the person shall be deemed to be personal service of the summons on the person.

Historical Note(s): 1970-22-8; [repealed 1982-38-18, to be proclaimed].

Regulations

8.  The Lieutenant Governor in Council may make regulations including regulations

(a) for containers, the refunds on them, and their disposal under section 2;

(b) exempting a container or sales of it from the Act and prescribing the conditions of the exemption;

(c) for the disposal of litter and domestic sewage and waste; and

(d) where authorized, for the construction and maintenance of litter and sewage pits.

Historical Note(s): 1970-22-9; 1972-33-9.

Subject to the Waste Management Act

9.  This Act is subject to the Waste Management Act.

Historical Note(s): 1989-54-4.