No charges will be laid in relation to the Upper Tantallon and Hammonds Plains wildfire, which started two years ago on Wednesday.
The provincial government says they “exhausted all possible avenues,” but were “unable to lay charges in relation to the 2023 wildfire,” according to a news release.
They say the Department of Natural Resources has two years from the date of any crime to dish out charges under the Forests Act, but they can only do that if there is “sufficient evidence to secure a conviction.”
“There is a high bar for what can be used as evidence in court,” the province wrote.
This comes on the two-year anniversary of the fire in Hammonds Plains/Upper Tantallon, which broke out on May 28, 2023, and burned 969 hectares of land.
Earlier this month, Natural Resources Minister Tory Rushton said the investigation was still open and asked anyone with information to come forward.
Dalton Clark Stewart, 23, of Villagedale is scheduled to be sentenced on June 12 for his role in the Barrington Lake wildfire, which started May 26, 2023 and burned 23,379 hectares of land. He pleaded guilty last year to leaving a fire unattended, a charge under the Forests Act.
