GIGO...

James: $720 fine for trash mistake just stinks

March 09, 2010
Royson James

You could take your clothes off and run naked and drunk through the streets of Toronto and, only if you are unlucky, get yourself a minor fine from some enterprising constable.
But make a mistake and leave a small bag of recyclables in the wrong bag at the wrong place? Boom! The city's garbage police will sock it to you.
Such is the experience of Queen St. W. businessman Mark Wright, who's survived on the strip for almost 25 years without running afoul of the city's eager-beaver licensing officers.
Then in late January his elderly cleaning lady misplaced a small bag of dry office refuse she was sorting while doing her laundry at the laundromat. One thing led to another. The garbage police sniffed out the crime. And the long, weighty arm of the city bylaw came down on Wright with a thud.
Fine: $720. That's $360 for "deposit waste on or in a public street or other public property." And another $360 for "set out waste not in appropriate regulation container."
That's more punitive than the penalty for running a stop sign. You could hurt somebody and get off with less damage to your pocketbook.
"I don't want to be the poster boy for what's wrong with the city, but the city is out of control," says Wright, owner of Prisma Light, a video production company.
"I have four kids and we are avid recyclers at home. At the office, we have a very small footprint. Some weeks we produce less than the equivalent of one bag of garbage and recycling combined.
"So how, for goodness sake, did we get to the point that a small error, a cleaning lady forgetting to tag a garbage bag, results in fines that exceed almost all other fines?"
You have to feel for the guy. He's credible. He seems conscientious. It seems there's been a bit of a mistake – one that should be remedied without court appearances and angst and the like. But court is where he might end up.
Wright's councillor, Joe Pantalone, is advocating on his behalf, but even that may not be enough. The fine can't be wiped out just because a councillor intervened – even if the councillor is the deputy mayor and is running for mayor.
"My sympathies are 100 per cent with this businessman. It was an honest mistake," Pantalone says. He's asked, in writing, for a review of the circumstances around this citation. If the bureaucracy is unmoved, Pantalone promises to write a letter of support on behalf of the business – something Wright might be able to take to court to plead his case.
The cleaning lady did her sorting of three bags of office refuse while doing her laundry – two doors away from Prisma Light. She forgot the small bag but took two other large bags when finished. The laundromat owner put the discarded bag of recyclables out on the curb. Bylaw enforcers rifled through the bag and identified the culprit from correspondence.
No warning. No second chance. No questions. Bam. $720 fine.
"We are good recyclers and good community neighbours ... trying to do the right thing," Wright said Monday. "With a reasonable fine, a warning, all of this could have been avoided. But as many people believe, this isn't really about garbage or dumping or caring about this city – this is about generating revenue. And doing it on the backs of businesses like mine."
Pantalone acknowledges the penalty is excessive, but says fines need to be large to spark compliance. "Discretion" is needed here, he says.