BILL NO. 67
(as introduced)
3rd Session, 61st General Assembly
Nova Scotia
60 Elizabeth II, 2011
Scrap-metal Dealers and Recyclers Act
Allan MacMaster
Inverness
First Reading: October 31, 2011
Second Reading:
Third Reading:
An Act to Regulate the Sale of
Scrap copper and Certain Other Scrap Metal
Be it enacted by the Governor and Assembly as follows:
1 This Act may be cited as the Scrap-metal Dealers and Recyclers Act.
2 In this Act,
(a) “local law-enforcement agency” means the police department providing policing services for the municipality in which a transaction occurs to which this Act applies;
(b) “prescribed record” means information prescribed to be kept by this Act;
(c) “prescribed identification” means a valid photo-identification document issued by a government anywhere in Canada and that
(ii) is accompanied by government-issued identification for the person that displays the person’s address;
(e) “scrap metal” means new or used items substantially made of copper, aluminum, brass, bronze or other metals prescribed by the regulations and in such quantities as prescribed by the regulations;
(f) “scrap-metal dealer or recycler” means a person engaged in the business of purchasing, trading, bartering or otherwise receiving scrap metal, including employees of that person, and includes any person who buys or sells scrap metal;
(g) “utility-grade scrap metal” means insulated heavy stranded copper wire, aluminum feeder wire or other scrap metal classified as utility-grade scrap metal by the regulations.
3 (1) Before purchasing or receiving scrap metal, a scrap-metal dealer or recycler shall
(a) confirm the identity of the person who is selling or providing the scrap metal by reference to prescribed identification provided by that person and record the number-plate information of any vehicle used by the person in the course of the transaction;
(b) obtain and record all prescribed information respecting the transaction; and
(c) satisfy himself or herself that the person submitting the identification is the same person as the person described in the identification.
(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1),
(a) where the scrap-metal dealer or recycler believes, on reasonable grounds, that the person selling or providing the scrap metal does not have the required photo-identification document, the scrap-metal dealer or recycler may instead take a photograph that clearly shows the person; and
(b) where the person’s address cannot be established by the required document, the scrap-metal dealer or recycler may instead accept such information as the person can supply and that is reasonable in the circumstances of the person and the person’s presence with the scrap metal, if, in each case, the scrap-metal dealer or recycler maintains the photograph or records the information, as the case may be, with the prescribed information.
(3) A scrap-metal dealer or recycler shall inform a person entering into a transaction that the information obtained is being collected and may be provided to a peace officer or the local law-enforcement agency.
(4) A person who sells or provides scrap metal to a scrap-metal dealer or recycler and provides the prescribed information is deemed to consent to the transfer of the prescribed information to a peace officer or the local law-enforcement agency.
(5) A scrap-metal dealer or recycler shall maintain the prescribed information obtained pursuant to subsection (1) for one year after the transaction.
(6) Within twenty-four hours of purchasing or receiving utility-grade scrap metal or any item that may reasonably be known to have been copper tubing used to transmit heating oil, a scrap-metal dealer or recycler shall provide the prescribed information collected under subsection (1) to the local law-enforcement agency.
(7) This Section does not apply to the purchase or receipt of used cans or containers for food, beverages, paint or domestic or household products normally recycled to avoid waste.
(8) This Section does not apply to commercial scrap transactions, as defined by the regulations, or any other transactions exempted by the regulations.
4 No scrap-metal dealer or recycler shall purchase or receive scrap metal from any person who
(a) is or appears to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs;
(b) fails to identify himself or herself if requested to do so under Section 3; or
(c) fails to provide the prescribed information about the transaction as required by Section 3.
5 No person may sell to a scrap-metal dealer or recycler nor may any scrap-metal dealer or recycler accept anything that is, or would appear to a reasonable person who had made diligent inquiries to be, a copper pipe used to transmit home heating oil, unless the seller holds a valid certificate of qualification as an installer pursuant to the Petroleum Management Regulations under the Environment Act.
6 (1) A peace officer may, at any reasonable time, inspect any records prescribed by the regulations for any seven-day period at one or more scrap-metal dealers or recyclers as part of an investigation of one or more instances of the disappearance of scrap metal, and any person who has the custody, possession or control of those records shall produce them and permit inspection of them by the peace officer.
(2) A warrant pursuant to the Summary Proceedings Act is required for the inspection by a peace officer of the records for any period longer than seven days, or for a second inspection relative to the same disappearance of scrap metal.
(3) An application for an investigative warrant pursuant to subsection 2B(1A) of the Summary Proceedings Act may, without limiting the generality of that subsection, be granted to require the production of, or search for and seizure of, records prescribed by the regulations or scrap metal at more than one scrap-metal dealer or recycler notwithstanding the absence of reasonable grounds that evidence will be found at any one of them if
(a) there are reasonable grounds that evidence of an offence against this Act will be found at any one or more of them; and
(b) it is reasonable to conduct such a search.
7 (1) Where a record has been inspected pursuant to Section 6, a peace officer may make copies of that record.
(2) A true copy of a record certified by a peace officer to be a copy made pursuant to this Section
(a) is admissible in evidence without proof of the office or signature of the person purporting to have signed the certificate; and
(b) has the same probative force as the original record.
(3) A peace officer shall ensure that, after copies of any records inspected pursuant to Section 6 are made, the originals are promptly returned to the person from whom they were obtained.
8 (1) In this Section, “personal information” means personal information as defined in the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. (2) A peace officer or any employee of a local law-enforcement agency shall keep confidential all personal information received by him or her pursuant to this Act, except as required for the performance of policing services as authorized by the Police Act.
9 (1) No action lies against a peace officer or any employee of a local law-enforcement agency, acting pursuant to the authority of this Act or the regulations, for anything in good faith done, caused or permitted or authorized to be done, attempted to be done or omitted to be done by that person or by any of those persons pursuant to or in the exercise or supposed exercise of any power conferred by this Act or the regulations or in the carrying out or supposed carrying out of any order made pursuant to this Act or any duty imposed by this Act or the regulations.
(2) No action lies against a scrap-metal dealer or recycler for the disclosure of any information or record pursuant to this Act or the regulations if such disclosure is made in good faith for the purpose of this Act.
10 (1) Every person who contravenes this Act or the regulations is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to
(a) for a first offence
(ii) in the case of a corporation, a fine not exceeding fifteen thousand dollars; or
(b) in the case of a second or subsequent offence
(ii) in the case of a corporation, a fine not exceeding fifty thousand dollars.
(2) In addition to the fine under subsection (1), a court shall, unless exigent circumstances exist, impose an additional fine equal to the greater of
(a) the amount the scrap-metal dealer or recycler paid for the scrap metal that is the subject-matter of the charge;
(b) the amount for which the scrap-metal dealer or recycler sold the scrap metal that is the subject of the charge;
(c) an amount that the court considers, on evidence presented, to be a reasonable estimate of either amount.
(3) Where a corporation commits an offence under this Act or the regulations, any director, officer or agent of the corporation who directed, authorized or assented to, acquiesced in or participated in an act or omission that constitutes an offence by the corporation is guilty of that offence and is liable on summary conviction to the penalties provided for the offence, whether or not the corporation has been prosecuted or convicted.
(4) In a prosecution for an offence under this Act or the regulations, it is sufficient proof of the offence to establish that it was committed by an employee or agent of the accused, whether or not the employee or agent is identified or has been prosecuted for the offence, but this Act shall not be construed as limiting any defence available at common law.
(5) Where an offence under this Act or the regulations is committed or continued on more than one day, the person who committed the offence is liable to be convicted for a separate offence for each day on which the offence is committed or continued.
11 (1) The Governor in Council may make regulations
(a) prescribing types of identification that are acceptable for confirming the identity of persons selling or providing scrap metal for the purpose of this Act;
(b) prescribing the information that must be obtained by a scrap-metal dealer or recycler from a person selling or providing scrap metal and recorded by the scrap- metal dealer or recycler;
(c) respecting the manner in which prescribed information is to be recorded and maintained by scrap-metal dealers or recyclers;
(d) prescribing materials as scrap metal for the purpose of this Act;
(e) classifying a type, form, grade, gauge or quantity of scrap metal as utility- grade scrap metal for the purpose of this Act;
(f) prescribing conditions that a person selling or providing scrap metal must meet before a scrap-metal dealer or recycler may purchase or receive the scrap metal;
(g) exempting any transaction or person or any class of transactions or persons from all or any provision of this Act and prescribing any circumstance in which all or any provision of this Act does not apply;
(h) for the purpose of Section 3 prescribing
(ii) the manner in which recorded information must be provided to local law enforcement agency or peace officer,
(iii) the timing or frequency of the provision of recorded information to a local law-enforcement agency or peace officer;
(i) further defining “prescribed identification” and “prescribed information”;
(j) defining any word or expression used but not defined in this Act;
(k) prescribing any matter or thing required or authorized by this Act to be prescribed in the regulations;
(l) respecting any matter or thing the Governor in Council considers necessary or advisable to carry out effectively the intent and purpose of this Act.
(2) The exercise by the Governor in Council of the authority contained in subsection (1) is regulations within the meaning of the Regulations Act.
12 Schedule B of the Summary Proceedings Act is amended by adding “Scrap-metal Dealers and Recyclers Act” immediately after “Retail Business Designated Day Closing Act”.
This page and its contents published by the Office of the Legislative Counsel, Nova Scotia House of Assembly, and © 2011 Crown in right of Nova Scotia. Created October 31, 2011. Send comments to legc.office@novascotia.ca.
