Litter in Montréal, Canada. The litter translates to "Save Kyoto".

Heavy fines in Montréal for littering

The fine for littering in Montréal (Canada) have substantially increasing, and now range from $US 53 to $US 882 ($CDN 60 to $CDN 1,000).

The fine amount is determined by whether the culprit is a private or corporate citizen, and which borough of the city the littering took place.

An expanded team of uniformed municipal inspectors has been told to hand out tickets rather than repeat warning notices to enforce the city’s intensified cleanliness campaign. The number of municipal inspectors has been increased from 50 to 60 persons, with 20 more inspectors in the downtown core alone.

“Even if it was a passerby or tenant who dropped the litter, the property owner is responsible for ensuring the area around a home or business is tidy”, the Mayor said.

“It’s a question of civic duty,” said Mayor Tremblay at a news conference to launch the Campaign.

Waste management approaches also reduce transportation-related emissions and overall energy savings by reusing items that would otherwise have to be manufactured. Also, a dependence on landfills can be reduced through waste prevention and recycling measures, resulting in the further elimination of greenhouse gas emissions. For more information on the importance of waste management, please visit www.iclei.org/ccp.

Montréal is one of 19 local governments in Canada that are currently Members of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability. For more information on ICLEI and its programs in Canada, please visit www.iclei.org/canada.

Source: “Montréal gets tough on litterbugs”, National Post, 4 April 2007.

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