FilloGreen, Quebec settle long-running landfill case
Mélissa Gélinas
Local Journalism Initiative
Published in the Pontiac Journal on July 2, 2025.
LITCHFIELD – By April 2027, the Litchfield-based company FilloGreen must pay a
total of $125,000 in fines following an environmental infraction committed in 2018.
The lengthy process is due to delays in the investigation. “I don’t know if COVID played a role,” said Louis Potvin, communications advisor and regional spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment.
According to Laurent Kiefer, environmental technician at FilloGreen, this was an unusual case. “There’s a long history between us and the Environment Ministry,” he explained.
It all began in 2014, when the company submitted an application for a certificate
of authorization to operate a construction material landfill.
Two years later, they still hadn’t received the certificate. “It was taking a long time —usually it doesn’t take years to get approved,” said Kiefer. Despite numerous discussions with the ministry, the issue remained unresolved.
In the meantime, FilloGreen had to transport its residual materials to Lachute. “It cost us a lot of money to send our trucks there,” Kiefer said.
By 2016 or 2017, with no certificate in sight, the company decided to store materials on-site. “We didn’t bury them—we just started accumulating them,” he said. “Every time, we thought the certificate would arrive soon and we’d be able to proceed with disposal.”
This accumulation led to tensions with the Ministry, which noted the growing volume of residual materials. After several inspections, FilloGreen was fined by the Ministry.
“We opposed the fine and challenged it in administrative court,” said Kiefer. “Eventually, we chose to settle,” he added. The certificate to operate a landfill site was finally
issued in June 2021.
Though the situation appeared resolved, it quickly took another turn. “Three years later, in May 2023, despite our good relationship with the ministry and compliant practices, we were shocked to receive a $400,000 fine from the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP),” Kiefer said. The fine was for improper disposal of residual materials in 2018. Since the infraction was over six years old, the ministry no longer had authority over the case, and the file was transferred to the DPCP.
To preserve its relationship with the ministry, FilloGreen agreed to pay $100,000 plus $25,000 in fees—a quarter of the original fine.
“Since 2021, things have gone well with the Ministry. They’ve issued us four new
permits and conduct regular inspections at our site,” Kiefer said.
