soil

Excess Soil Registry

2025 program fees for the Excess Soil Registry have been finalized. See the fees here.

Project leaders, Owners, Operators and Qualified Persons

File a Notice

Access publicly-available information from filed notices

Search Notices 

Information submitted in notice filings will be made publicly available in a searchable database

Excess soil is soil dug up mainly during construction and excavation activities that must be removed from the development site because it can’t or won’t be reused. From January 1, 2023, construction and development Project Leaders and Operators/Owners of soil Reuse Sites, and Residential Development Soil Depot sites must file notices about how they reuse and dispose of excess soil in compliance with Ontario’s Excess Soil Regulation.

Rules related to the reuse of Excess Soil in Ontario are detailed in the On-site and Excess Soil Management Regulation, O. Reg. 406/19. The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks is responsible for policy and programs related to Excess Soil and, for conducting compliance and enforcement activities under the Excess Soil Regulation. If you have questions related to the regulation, please email the ministry at MECP.LandPolicy@ontario.ca.

For site-specific questions related to Excess Soil movement, please contact the ministry’s local district office. To find an office, please use the District Locator.

Find out more about:

The registry project will be completed in two phases. Phase one of the project focused on developing the essential components to allow regulated persons to register and begin filing and updating their notices.

Phase two of the project will begin at a later date and develop additional functionalities to be defined in consultation with the Ministry and industry stakeholders. Information related to the timing and components of phase two of the registry project will be posted to this page as it becomes available.

RPRA awarded PwC Canada the contract to build the technical components of the registry, per its Procurement Policy.

What is the Excess Soil Registry?

To record excess soil generation and movement, the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks directed RPRA to establish and maintain the Excess Soil Registry which enables:

  • Regulated persons to comply with registration and notice filing requirements outlined in the regulation
  • The ministry to access notice filings and associated data; and
  • The public to access the information contained in notice filings

RPRA worked in close coordination with ministry staff and industry stakeholders to ensure that the registry meets the requirements of the Excess Soil Regulation, the Minister’s direction and the business requirements of registry users. If you have a question related to the registry, please email us at registry@rpra.ca.

Ministry access to notice filings and associated data

Designated Ministry staff have access to the Excess Soil Notice Internal Database where they can search for, view, and generate reports of in-depth notice filing and registry data.

The Internal Database is only available to designated ministry staff.

Below are a suite of training materials designed to help ministry staff navigate the Internal Database.

Intro to the Internal Database

Searching the Internal Database

Self-Serve Reports & Dashboards

Ministry User Administration