Fill dumped near a creek costs a leaseholder and contractor $42,500

What it means in dollars

Two parties behind soil work on a Markham property must pay $42,500 between them, plus $1 fines each. The company on the lease owes $22,500, or about $11,250 a year over two years. The excavation contractor owes $20,000, about $10,000 a year. For an example 100-unit apartment building, a bill that size would work out to roughly $425 per unit.

Why ground work matters here

Toronto has 3,611 registered apartment buildings, and many sit on sites that get levelled, landscaped or dug up over time. In this case, truckloads of soil were brought in to flatten the land. The fill buried plants and hurt trees beside a creek that is protected habitat for the Redside Dace, a small endangered fish. No sediment or erosion controls were put in. Neither party knew the habitat was there, but the court found they had not checked carefully enough. The protected zone was the creek and a 30-metre band of vegetation around it.

If you rent

If you see fill being dumped, trees damaged, or grading near a stream on your building's grounds, you can report it. Ontario's environment ministry runs the investigations branch that laid these charges. The source notice explains who was charged and why.

If you own or manage a building

Holding a lease rather than the title did not prevent a conviction here. Before levelling, landscaping or demolition near water, check what protections apply to the site. After the ministry stepped in, the leaseholder removed and tested the soil and added sediment controls; that cleanup was accepted in March 2025. See the ministry release for the full record.