Statement from the Registrar: Notices of Intention to issue Administrative Penalty Orders to tire producers

RPRA has issued Notices of Intention to serve administrative penalties against 45 tire producers that have failed to meet their 2023 minimum collection requirements.  

Section 4(1) of O. Reg. 225/18 (Tires Regulation) (as it appeared on December 31, 2023) issued under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016 (RRCEA) requires that in 2023 producers of tires collect 85% of the weight of the tires they supplied into the Ontario market based on a three-year rolling average (i.e., average of supply data reported to RPRA in 2020, 2021 and 2022).  

The 45 tire producers reported that they failed in 2023 to collect the required minimum weight of tires supplied into Ontario. The proposed penalties range from $70 K to $1 M. The Tires Regulation also requires producers to recycle, retread or reuse 85% of the tires collected in 2023, which the tire producers reported that they achieved. The 2023 tire performance data can be found on RPRA’s website. 

RPRA may impose administrative penalties to incentivise compliance with the RRCEA and its regulations or to prevent a person from deriving, directly or indirectly, any economic benefit as a result of contravening a provision of the RRCEA or its regulations. 

Tire producers can still avoid the penalties by complying with the regulatory requirements, which is RPRA’s preferred outcome.   

Tire producers that were served a Notice of Intention have 21 days to submit information in writing to the Deputy Registrar about actions they have taken to remedy the contravention (e.g., that they have obtained additional collected and managed tires to reach their minimum collection requirement) or request that the Deputy Registrar consider additional information. If the contravention is not remedied or if a request to consider additional information is unsuccessful, then the Administrative Penalty Orders may be issued. 

O. Reg. 558/22 (Administrative Penalties Regulation) issued under the RRCEA gives RPRA the authority to issue administrative penalties for contraventions of certain provisions of the RRCEA and its associated regulations. Administrative Penalty Orders are made up of a base amount and an economic benefit amount and cannot exceed $1 M per contravention. Any Administrative Penalty Orders issued will be posted to RPRA’s website.

More information about administrative penalties, including how to appeal an Administrative Penalty Orders and how RPRA may use any AP revenues, can be found in RPRA’s Administrative Penalties Guidelines and Use of Administrative Penalty Revenues Policy.