CITY CLERK

 Clause embodied in Report No. 1 of The Works Committee, which was before the Council of the City of Toronto at its meeting held on July 6, 7 and 8, 1999.

  2

List of Companies Convicted of Contravening

City Sewer Use By-law

(City Council on July 6, 7 and 8, 1999, struck out and referred this Clause back to the Works Committee for the development of guidelines relating to the publication of the names of those companies convicted of contravening the City's Sewer Use By-law.

Council also adopted the following:

"It is recommended that, in the interim, Council adopt, in principle, the concept of publishing the names of companies convicted of contravening the City Sewer Use By-law.")

The Works Committee reports having directed that the following communication dated June 16, 1999, from Councillor Jack Layton, Don River, be submitted to Council without recommendation; and that the Commissioner of Works and Emergency Services be requested to submit a report directly to Council on individual instances where companies have been convicted of contravening the City's Sewer Use By-law:

Recommendation:

That the Works Department be requested to release the list of companies that have been convicted of contravening the City's Sewer Use By-law and any other by-laws regulating the type and quantities of material that can be dumped into city sewers for the last three years.

A request has been made to my office for the list of companies that have been convicted of illegally dumping effluent into the City sewer system.

(City Council on July 6, 7 and 8, 1999, had before it, during consideration of the foregoing Clause, the following report (July 6, 1999) from the Commissioner of Works and Emergency Services:

Purpose:

To identify to Council a listing of companies that have been charged with violations of the Sewer Use By-law for the past three years.

Funding Sources, Financial Implications and Impact Statement:

There are no funding implications arising from this report.

Recommendations:

The information contained in this report be received.

Council Reference/Background/History:

The Works Committee, at its meeting of June 16, 1999, directed that a communication from Councillor Jack Layton be submitted to Council without recommendation and that the Commissioner of Works and Emergency Services be requested to submit a report directly to Council on individual instances where companies have been convicted of contravening the City's Sewer Use By-law (Clause 2, Works Committee Report No. 1).

Comments and/or Discussion and/or Justification:

The original request for releasing of a list of companies was directed to the Water and Wastewater Services Division of Works and Emergency Services Department and in reviewing this request it was suggested that an application be submitted to the City Clerk's Office under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The original request was for access to all the prosecution records of all the companies and as such staff in the Water and Wastewater Services Division were advised not to provide this information directly.

Subsequently, on June 28, 1999 the request was narrowed to a list of companies that have been charged with violations of the Sewer Use By-law.

As a result of the revised request, the City Clerk's Office granted the release of the information and on June 30, 1999 sent the list to the company seeking the information.

It should be noted that information about identifiable individuals was severed by the Freedom of Information Office from the listing provided by the Water and Wastewater Services Division.

A copy of the transmittal letter from the City Clerk's Office and the adjusted list is attached to this report.

Conclusions:

Given the fact that the access request was changed to a list of companies rather than the prosecution records of all companies, the Freedom of Information Office has released the list regarding companies.

It should be noted that the list pertains to prosecutions under the former Metro Sewer Use By-law No. 153-89.

Currently staff are going through the public consultation process for the new consolidated City of Toronto Sewer Use By-law but in the meantime we continue to enforce all of the previous by-laws that were in place prior to amalgamation.

Contact Name:

Michael A. Price, P.Eng., FICE

General Manager, Water and Wastewater Services

19^th Floor, Metro Hall

Tel: 392-8200 Fax: 392-4540)

(A copy of the list of companies charged with violations of the City Sewer Use By-law, which was attached to the foregoing report, is on file in the office of the City Clerk.)