New Brunswick·NewAmerican Iron & Metal is seeking a judicial review of the New Brunswick government’s decision this summer to not extend its salvage dealer’s licence for a scrapyard in Moncton.Public safety minister opted not to renew approval for Toombs Street site in JulyShane Magee · CBC News · Posted: Oct 22, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoThe American Iron & Metal site on Toombs Street in Moncton on Tuesday. (Shane Magee/CBC)American Iron & Metal is going to court over its Moncton scrapyard.The company has filed for a judicial review of the New Brunswick government’s decision to not extend a salvage dealer licence.Public Safety Minister Robert Gauvin in July notified the company its licence for the Toombs Street site would not be renewed.The Montreal-based company also known as AIM is challenging the decision. AIM alleges in its court filing on Oct. 16 that the minister’s decision was based on “irrelevant factors and prejudged the question of whether it was in the public interest to renew the license, demonstrating an impermissibly closed mind and bias.”WATCH | Company calls minister’s decision unreasonable, unintelligible:AIM asks court to reinstate Moncton scrapyard permitAmerican Iron & Metal is going to court over an “unreasonable” decision not to extend its salvage dealer’s licence for a scrapyard on Toombs Street in Moncton. The province has yet to file a response to the AIM application. A spokesperson for the department declined to comment on the case Tuesday.The case is the latest legal battle between the company and the province. Cases continue related to its Saint John port site shutdown by the province after a September 2023 scrap fire.AIM purchased the Moncton site in March 2023. It had been used as a scrapyard for years before by another company.Residents living nearby complained about noise, smells, vibrations and debris falling in an adjacent waterway, saying those issues worsened when AIM took over. Residents packed a city council meeting in 2023 and held a protest in 2024 calling for the operation to be relocated.The Saint John scrapyard fire in 2023 led to the company sending more scrap material to Moncton. An affidavit in the Moncton case describes the increase as “a temporary uptick in traffic” that led to more noise complaints. In 2024, Kris Austin, the public safety minister at the time, threatened to revoke the company’s licence for violating the Unsightly Premises Act. That review ended with Austin allowing the operation to continue as AIM took steps to address the noise. The company installed a wall of shipping containers along part of the site. The court case says AIM spent about $450,000 on the noise reduction plan.An aerial view of American Iron & Metal’s site in the Scoudouc Industrial Park on Aug. 21. (Denis Mazerolle/Radio-Canada)The salvage dealer licence was set to expire June 30 this year. On June 17, the court filing says, the company was notified it would be issued a salvage dealer licence for AIM’s land in the Scoudouc Industrial Park. CBC News reported on that permit in August, but AIM didn’t comment about its plans for the location.The court filing says “the Scoudouc site is not operational and will require significant investment if it is ever to become so. The Scoudouc site is not a replacement for the [Moncton] facility, now or in the future.”On the same day in June that the province approved the Scoudouc licence, the minister notified the company it was reviewing whether to extend its Moncton licence, the filing says. It says the minister’s review pointed to the same issues Austin had raised the year before about the site’s proximity to parks, a playground, the Sistema New Brunswick building, noise and municipal zoning.AIM’s application says Gauvin didn’t provide the company a chance to respond and had already determined the licence would not be extended. “The decision is unreasonable, unintelligible, and lacks justification and transparency,” the filing says.The company is asking for a judge to overturn the minister’s decision. The filing says conditions on its approval would be sufficient to address concerns.ABOUT THE AUTHORShane Magee is a Moncton-based reporter for CBC News.With files from Pascal Raiche-Nogue
AIM goes to court over Moncton scrapyard licence
