In a statement at the time, Ontario's Ministry of the Environment (MOE) said the substance that spilled into the water was 'Morgoil,' a heavy oil used for lubrication of heavy machinery.
“The spill prompted a drinking water advisory from Algoma Public Health,” the court documents said.
“The Community of Echo Bay’s water treatment plant was shut down for 18 days as a result of the spill, ultimately requiring drinking water to be trucked in. The cost of remediation to the company was significant.”
Investigation into the spill is ongoing by MOE, Conservation and Parks, as well as the Department of the Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Charges against the company are still possible, the documents said, while shedding light on how the incident occurred.
“The spill occurred because the oil pump could be switched on and operated without supervision,” the transcript said.
“Consequently, when a contractor left a valve open somewhere in the network of pipes, one of the tanks overflowed, causing the spill.”
A day after the spill, June 10, the company issued new procedures for filling the oil tanks aimed at preventing a similar occurrence.
“Specifically, two persons are now required for the procedure, one of whom has to continually press the button to let the oil flow and the other must stand by the operating tanks to indicate when they are full,” the transcript said.
The arbitration hearing was held to challenge discipline the company handed down to an employee who had violated the new protocols.
Specifically, the union wanted the company to wait to hand down discipline until its grievance is heard, something the arbitrator rejected.
Amid renewed questions over the pervasiveness of alleged interference by China in Canadian elections and affairs broadly, opposition MPs voted Thursday afternoon to affirm a parliamentary committee's call for the federal government to strike a public inquiry.
An asteroid discovered just last week will pass closer to the Earth than the orbit of the moon this weekend, an occurrence so rare it happens only once in a decade, according to NASA.
The number of Canadians receiving employment insurance benefits are at record lows and down 44 per cent from last year, new figures from Statistics Canada show.
Two Kanien'keha:ka (Mohawk) sisters from Montreal are on a mission that is close to their hearts: to save their ancestors' first language by developing video games young and old can play.
Zellers has opened the first of 25 new locations within Hudson's Bay stores across the country. The Canadian retail chain launched 12 stores in Ontario and Alberta Thursday, along with a new e-commerce website.
Embattled South Carolina Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom will resign next month after a US$3.5 billion accounting error in the year-end financial report he oversaw.
The quick thinking and immediate actions of two people are credited with possibly saving the life of a Midland councillor after he collapsed at a meeting Wednesday evening.
U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrived in Ottawa on a foggy Thursday evening, kicking off a whirlwind two-day visit to the capital. Ottawa police and the city of Ottawa have warned residents and visitors will see an increased police presence across the downtown core, and there will be "significant traffic and transit disruptions" during the visit.
The resurrection of Zellers is officially underway with the Cambridge location opening its doors to eager shoppers who lined up ahead of the store's official reopening.
The new provincial budget features items specific to southwestern Ontario, including a new English public elementary school in London, Ont. that will serve 556 students and include 88 licensed childcare spaces.
A young Strathroy, Ont. man believes there's a promising way forward in the effort to fight his disease. But, he's being told, right now, that path isn't open to him. Friends and family are stepping up to try and make a case for Kyle McPhee to receive immunotherapy treatments.
After a year-and-a-half without, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) says it’s narrowing in on hiring a permanent chief medical officer of health.
When the permit to construct a replacement span for the Ambassador Bridge expired in the summer of 2022, many thought that would bring an end to a 20-year saga of boarded up homes in the city’s west end.
Friends of Camille Maheux are trying to assemble some of her life's work. The 76-year-old photographer was killed in the Old Montreal fire and her photographs and negatives were destroyed.
Canada and the United States are negotiating a deal that could designate all 8,900 kilometres of their shared border as an official crossing under the Safe Third Country Agreement.
The Tim Houston PC government remains firm in their promise they'll fix the health-care system by spending more taxpayer money on health than any previous government before.
The rate of snow and rain falling in the Maritimes will pick up late Thursday afternoon into evening as a weather system makes its way across the region.
Selkirk RCMP have arrested and charged a man after he allegedly killed his dog, smashed out the windows of a home and two cars with an axe, and set fire to a shed on his property.
With the sale of Portage Place in the works, more people living and working in downtown Winnipeg, and a full slate of events planned for the summer, vendors and stakeholders think the future looks bright for the city's beleaguered core area.
The Alberta legislature wrapped up its spring sitting Thursday with politicians on both sides of the aisle test-driving insults and expected attack lines ahead of the scheduled May 29 provincial election.
Proponents of a British Columbia liquefied natural gas export facility have unveiled plans to achieve net-zero emissions commitments in the construction phase and for its future operations.
Beginning next week, drivers will have to ease off the gas pedal while passing nine Vancouver schools located along busy arterial routes and collector streets.
