The Halton Region says that it will be going to court in Ontario to demand CN compliance with laws.
On Thursday, April 15th, the Halton Municipalities and Conservation Halton resumed their 2018 Ontario court case against the proposed Milton CN truck-rail hub. It says that this move is to ensure CN complies with laws that protect the health of residents and the environment.
“We are taking immediate action to address the serious concerns of Halton residents with respect to the proposed CN truck-rail hub in Milton,” says Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr. “No proposal should be allowed to go ahead before it complies with our laws. CN must be accountable to those who will be most affected by the project, and not just the Federal Government, which ignored its duty to protect the health of Halton residents when it announced its approval of this project.”
The CN Intermodal Hub was approved by the federal government back in January. The official decision statement can be read here. The 49-page document details a number of conditions that will need to be met for the hub to be built.
The Intermodal Hub had been a long standing issue in Milton. An Environmental Review Panel was put together in 2019 to hear both sides, review the information brought forth, and decide if the hub would have significant health impacts on Milton and the surrounding area. The results were released in January of 2020.
“The Federal Government has let us down and ignored the expertise of the panel it appointed,” says Milton Mayor Gordon Krantz. “Let me assure all Miltonians, we will continue fighting and advocating for you at all levels of government and in the courts.”
In a release, the Halton Region says the following regarding the potential Hub:
“CN’s proposed truck-rail hub in Milton would create only a small number of jobs and not provide the kind of investment that has been planned for and approved in Regional Official Plan Amendment 38 (ROPA 38). Although concerns with significant adverse environmental effects on air quality and human health are paramount, this proposal’s permanent harm to anticipated employment, investment, and municipal finances is also significant. CN is ignoring the substantial benefits it promised in 2008 when it sought and ultimately obtained changes to Regional Official Plan Amendment 38. The low employment and investment numbers now advanced by CN for the current proposal could be achieved elsewhere by modernizing its existing Brampton facility.”
