ESG Enforcement Tracker

Key facts:

On 30 April 2025, Environment and Climate Change Canada laid 200 charges against ArcelorMittal Canada Inc – a subsidiary of Luxembourg-based mining company ArcelorMittal – for allegedly dumping harmful substances into tributaries of the Moisie River between May 2014 and June 2022, contrary to the Fisheries Act.

The Moisie River is one of the largest Atlantic salmon rivers in North America. The Fisheries Act prohibits the dumping of deleterious substances in waters frequented by fish or in any place where any such substance may enter these waters. A deleterious substance is any substance, including zinc, nickel, suspended solids, and acutely lethal effluents, which, if added to water, can degrade or alter water quality to the point of harming fish.

The company was previously fined CA$15 million in 2022, for concealing the extent of the toxic substances that entered waters near the Moisie River, following a dike rupture in 2012.