Yukon man fined $20K for leaving garbage, human waste and more at two properties

A Yukon man has been fined $20,000 after leaving buckets of human and food waste, wrecked cars and other garbage at two properties in the Burwash Landing and Destruction Bay areas.

Joszef Suska, 51, pleaded guilty via his lawyer in Whitehorse territorial court Tuesday to one count each of failing to comply with a dangerous wildlife protection order and disposing of waste in an unauthorized manner.

According to an agreed statement of facts filed to the court, conservation officers visited properties at mile marker 1,118 (kilometre 1,735) and at kilometre 1,654 locally known as the "Bayshore property" of the Alaska Highway in February 2022 and July 2022after receiving complaints about "contamination and mismanagement of attractants."

Conservation officers learned that Suska, who owns a towing company, was using the 1,118 property for his business. During an inspection of the property and nearby Crown land on July 11, 2022, officers discovered, among other things, 20-litre plastic buckets on a flatbed trailer containing "a liquid consistent in smell and colour with an oil product," other buckets that "appeared to contain human/food waste" and a large pile of old tires and wrecked vehicles with fluids leaking onto the ground. There were also dozens of vehicles and trailers parked there.

A caretaker living on the property told officers that Suska had "hauled and dumped garbage onto the Crown land behind the property using a dump truck."

Conservation officers also inspected the Bayshore property and found a fifth-wheel trailer "pushed off the end of a dead-end road onto the highway right-of-way" with jugs of used cooking oil and filled garbage bags inside.

Suska provided a statement to a conservation officer the following day, according to theagreed statement of facts, where he said he was hired to work on the Bayshore property and had an employee living in the fifth-wheel trailer.

Suska admitted that he placed the trailer, and jugs of used cooking oil, on the property. He also admitted he was collecting used motor oil at the 1,118 property and storing it in barrels until he could move them to Whitehorse, and that he had hauled pails of human waste, oil, used tires and garbage from a shop on the property to adjacent Crown land.

Conservation officer Aaron Koss-Young issued two dangerous wildlife protection orders to Suska on July 16, 2022. Theyrequired Suska to clean up the used cooking oil and garbage bags from the fifth-wheel trailer by 5 p.m. on July 19, 2022, and the 22 buckets of human and food waste, petroleum products andgarbageon the Crown land by the 1,118 property by 5 p.m. on July 26, 2022.

While subsequent inspections found that Suska cleaned up at the Bayshore property, the 1,118 property still had a pile of garbage including human waste and food in it on Aug. 13, 2022.

Suska previously involved in 'very similar situation' in Whitehorse

In court, territorial Crown Kelly McGill and Suska's lawyer, Jennifer Budgell, madea joint sentencing submission, requesting that Suska be fined $10,000 for each charge.

While there was no evidence any dangerous wildlife, including bears, had actually been attracted to either of the properties, McGill emphasized that there was "real potential harm" in the situation to animals that could have been drawn in by the attractants and the people living on the properties.

She also noted that Suska had been involved in a "very similar situation" in Whitehorse's McRae subdivision in 2018, where he'd left used cooking oil out at an industrial lot and residence. At least three bears were euthanized after becoming accustomed to feeding on the oil, and Suska paid more than $500,000 in fines and fees after pleading guilty to five Environment Act and Wildlife Act charges and then failing to clean up the property.

The owner and manager of the properties wasalso fined following a trial in that case.

McGill acknowledged that Suska's guilty pleas to the 2022 charges were a mitigating factor, but also said that the offences "could not be tolerated" and that fines were necessary to condemn the behaviour.

She said a remediation order wouldn't be useful as he no longer had access to the 1,118 property.

Budgell, meanwhile, told the court that Suska had "been eager to resolve this matter" and the fact that no bears or wildlife were attracted to the properties represented a "lack of an aggravating factor."

While deputy territorial court Judge Timothy Killeen ultimately accepted the joint sentencing submission, he initially questioned how effective the fine would be given Suska's previous case.

"How can somebody get fines of over $500,000 and not learn from that?" he asked, later adding that, should Suska find himself in court again for similar offences, the only deterrent that would work would be incarceration.

Killeen also described the offences as "serious," and ones that put both wildlife and the people in the area at risk. He noted that the environment was put at risk too, since Suska was storing not just a "gigantic pile of junk" but motor oil as well.

Budgell said Suska was ready to pay the $20,000 fine immediately.

McGill entered a stay of proceedings on two other charges against Suska.