British Columbians can check to see whether industries, businesses or even their neighbours have run afoul of the province’s environmental rules.

A new searchable database will list court convictions, tickets and other actions taken by enforcement officers, dating back to 2006. The online site will include offences such as hunting and fishing infractions and pesticide and pollution violations.

“People have a strong interest in environmental stewardship in their communities and an equal interest in knowing who is responsible for environmental offences,” said Environment Minister Terry Lake.

However, Andrew Gage, staff lawyer at West Coast Environmental Law, said the major point revealed by the 2010 enforcement statistics is that the number of people convicted for environmental offences is steadily dropping.

“This new data demonstrates that there were fewer convictions under B.C.’s environmental statute in 2010 than in more than 20 years,” Gage said.

“Environmental rules don’t work if you don’t have staff investigating possible violations and charging polluters,” he said, referring to staff cuts in the environment and forests ministries.

There were 32 convictions under environmental statutes last year, compared to an average of 46 convictions per year in the 1990s and 122 per year the following decade, Gage estimated.

“Charging serious offenders is key to deterrence and an important way for government to show that it is serious about environmental protection,” he said.

Last year also saw the second lowest number of tickets handed out under environmental statutes

West Coast Environmental Law based its figures on the major environmental statutes – the Environmental Management, Fisheries, Integrated Pest Management, Migratory Birds Convention, Water and Wildlife Acts. The Parks Act is not included in the group’s figures as pre-2006 data is difficult to establish, Gage said.

jlavoie@timescolonist.com