Domtar’s Skookumchuck Pulp penalty reduced to $25,750 by consent

An agreed order of British Columbia’s Environmental Appeal Board reduced an administrative penalty against Domtar Inc., doing business as Skookumchuck Pulp, from $56,250 to $25,750.

In Domtar Inc. dba Skookumchuck Pulp v. Director, Environmental Management Act, 2026 BCEAB 38, dated September 2, 2026, the board changed two findings underlying the penalty and dismissed the appeal without costs. The $30,500 reduction resulted from a consent order, not a contested merits ruling.

Two findings changed

Domtar had appealed on July 25, 2025, challenging a June 24, 2025 administrative-penalty determination concerning its effluent permit, number 240. The appeal was brought under section 100 of the Environmental Management Act.

The order reversed the director’s finding that Domtar contravened section 2.1 of the permit in file 2024-44b. The monetary penalty associated with that finding was cancelled.

For file 2024-44a, the order reversed the finding that a contravention of permit section 1.1.2 was deliberate and reduced the associated penalty. It did not reverse that underlying contravention in its entirety.

The board fixed the combined penalty for file 2024-44 at $25,750 and confirmed the original decision in all other respects. The order does not allocate the revised total between individual penalty components.

An agreed resolution with limited reasons

The parties agreed that the consent order exhaustively recorded their agreement. The board made it under section 16(1) of the Administrative Tribunals Act, with counsel for both Domtar and the director consenting to its terms.

The two-page order does not explain the evidentiary or legal basis for the agreed changes. It therefore does not establish a broader test for effluent-permit enforcement or explain why the deliberateness finding was removed.

The result leaves a reduced administrative penalty and the unaltered portions of the director’s decision in place. Dismissal of the appeal without costs does not mean Domtar lost every issue: the same order expressly gives effect to the agreed reversals and reduction.