Man fined for installing septic system without a licence

Allan Emmett MacDonald said he didn’t have Grade 12 education so he couldn’t take necessary licensing course

A 65-year-old man who said he couldn’t take a necessary licensing course after he lost a foot in an accident was fined $500 Monday for installing a septic system without a licence.

Allan Emmett MacDonald appeared before Chief Judge Nancy Orr in provincial court in Charlottetown where he pleaded guilty to the violation of the Environmental Protection Act.

The court heard MacDonald was charged after a conservation officer got an anonymous tip that the contractor who installed a septic system at a cottage in Rocky Point did not have a licence.

MacDonald admitted to installing the system and that he didn’t have a licence.

He told the court he had been in the septic tank business for 40 years and used to have a licence, but he stopped working for a while after losing a foot in an accident.

MacDonald said he needed to take a course to get a new licence but couldn’t because he didn’t have a Grade 12 education.

The court also heard he had more than $7,000 outstanding in unpaid fines, including $200 for the same offence in 2016.

Orr said it was hard to give him a fine with so much left unpaid.

“It’s not much of a deterrent, is it?”

She also asked him why he accepted work without a licence.

MacDonald responded that someone asked him to do it and he made a mistake by saying yes.

“I’ve just got to learn to say no,” he said.

Orr ended up fining MacDonald $500 and putting him on probation for two years with a condition he not install sewage systems unless he has a proper licence.