Kenneth Brown
of The Crossroads

The court case for former Kindersley MLA Bill Boyd has concluded, and a provincial court judge ordered Boyd to pay fines for habitat and environmental charges.

Former MLA Bill Boyd

Boyd did not appear at provincial court in Kindersley on April 17, but he was not obligated to appear because the habitat and environmental charges were not criminal in nature. Boyd’s lawyer, Robert Ard, was at court where he was presented with a written decision.

Judge Robert Jackson chose to provide a written decision to Matthew Miazga, the Crown prosecutor, and Ard to save the court time on a busy docket day. Boyd pleaded guilty to charges back in December, but it took longer to pass a sentence because environmental charges are less common in provincial court.

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Boyd appeared at court in Kindersley on Feb. 6, and he agreed to sign orders to remedy the damages that were caused through a farming operation to protected Crown land along the South Saskatchewan River in the summer of 2017.

The charges included a single count of altering wildlife habitat and ecological lands under the Wildlife Habitat Protection Act and three counts under the Environmental Management and Protection Act such as altering the configuration of the bed, bank or boundary of any river, stream, lake, creek, marsh, or other watercourse or water body.

Boyd pleaded guilty to his charge under the Wildlife Habitat Protection Act and to one count under the Environmental Management and Protection Act. The damage was caused when Boyd had instructed workers to install an irrigation system and pivot by the river.

Miazga suggested fines of $5,000 for the wildlife habitat charge and $25,000 for the environmental land charge. Ard argued that the second fine of $25,000 was too high, so Jackson told the lawyers he needed time to consider his decision.

Boyd made an attempt to remedy the damages at the river, but the work was not done to the satisfaction of environmental officials. As a result, Boyd was ordered by the court to further remedy the damages. Boyd agreed to sign the orders in February, but he had to wait for the decision on his fines.

Jackson ordered Boyd to pay a fine of $20,000 with a fine surcharge of $8,000 for the environmental land violation and a fine of $5,000 with a fine surcharge of $2,000 for the wildlife habitat violation for a total of $35,000 in fines.

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