Can scam operators want fine reduced

Owners of an Alberta recycling company fined for illegal ly collecting $1 million in deposits on beverage containers imported from Yukon says the fine should be reduced because it didn’t factor in its expenses.

In documents filed with the Environmental Appeals Board, the lawyer for Johnny Ha and Shawn Diep of Alberta Reclaim and Recycling argues the $844,778 fine didn’t take into account transportation costs, warehouse rent or the wages of employees hired to pull apart bales of crushed cans for recycling.

“It is conceded that the appellant must repay to the province the economic benefit realized through a business that was being operated unlawfully,” lawyer Sam Jomha says in his argument. “However, it is submitted that it would be greatly unfair ... to have the applicant pay to the state funds that he never truly realized and enjoyed.”

Alberta Reclaim and Recycling was assessed with an administrative penalty for 15 violations of provincial laws, including accepting shipments of beverage containers from Yukon, operating a bottle depot without a permit and failing to comply with a bottle depot permit.

Its appeal of the penalty, slated to be heard Friday in Edmonton, has been adjourned. The appeals board said it received a request from Alberta Environment to adjourn the hearing because of a death in the immediate family of a key witness. No new date has been announced.

Alberta Environment says the company imported an estimated 8.3 million beverage containers from Yukon, where there are no refundable deposits on beverage containers, into Alberta between January 2012 and January 2013.

It says the company received more than $1 million for deposit refunds and handling fees from the province’s beverage container refund system.

In addition to levying $75,000 in fines for 15 violations, the ministry assessed the company with an additional economic benefit fine of $769,778, the largest economic benefit assessment to be brought before the board in provincial history.

“The director believes the economic benefit assessment is conservative compared to the actual economic benefit that could have been assessed,” Alberta Environment says in its filing.

But Jomha said the government’s calculation of the economic benefit realized by his clients is “inaccurate at best.”

Jomha also challenged the decision to fine the company the maximum allowable amount of $5,000 on each of 15 offences, suggesting the fine should be closer to $1,500 per contravention.