Halifax (Regional Municipality) v. Ed DeWolfe Trucking Ltd., 2007 NSCA 89 (CanLII)

August 16, 2007 Ryan Oxner

This case was heard in the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal.

The Halifax Regional Municipality (“HRM”) enacted a by-law mandating that all solid waste from industrial, commercial, and institutional producers and construction and demolition operations had to be processed by waste disposal facilities within the HRM. When Ed DeWolfe Trucking Limited (“DeWolfe”) was charged with contravening the by-law after it transported waste from the HRM to a landfill in West Hants, numerous municipalities from throughout the Province of Nova Scotia joined the case as intervenors, as the case threw the legality of the HRM’s by-law into question.

After reviewing the history and purpose of the waste management system that was in place throughout Nova Scotia, the Court held that the HRM had enacted the by-law in order to increase the revenues that it could recuperate from the “tipping fees” that its waste disposal facilities charged for every truckload of waste they received. In the Court’s view, the HRM was in effect creating a monopoly on the provincial market for waste, and the Court held that the HRM had no authority to do so. The Court therefore held that the impugned by-law was invalid, and it dismissed the HRM’s action against DeWolfe.

The HRM appealed to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal, which held that the lower court had misconstrued the nature of the case by characterizing it as being predominantly about tipping fees and the market for waste more so than environmental concerns. The Court held that it was erroneous to characterize the impugned by-law as creating a monopoly, and it determined that the by-law had a proper municipal purpose and was fully within the HRM’s jurisdiction to enact. The Court therefore allowed the HRM’s appeal and set aside the decision of the lower court.

View the Decision on CanLII: https://www.canlii.org/en/ns/nsca/doc/2007/2007nsca89/2007nsca89.html

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