On December 21, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) posted a notice on its website, indicating that the Governor in Council has extended the time limit for a decision on CN’s proposal for a truck-rail hub in Milton by 30 days. The first delay was announced September 21 with a notice posted on the IAAC website. The Halton Municipalities, together with the community and local MPs and MPPs are extremely disappointed by this delay after voicing strong concerns about this project and the significant adverse effects it will cause to human health and the environment.
“The harm to health cannot be denied so it is incomprehensible that Federal Government has delayed their decision once again when they have all the information they need to refuse CN’s proposed project,” said Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr. “This delay is extremely frustrating to everyone involved. The Halton Municipalities, along with our local MPs and MPPs are united in our position this is not the right location for this truck-rail hub. It is time for the Federal Government to step up and make the right decision to protect the health and safety of our community by not approving the proposed CN project.”
The Federal Review Panel has determined that this project is likely to have significant adverse effects on human health because of the pollutants involved. There is no safe level of fine particulate matter in urban air. Its fatal effects were affirmed earlier this week in a London, England Coroners’ Inquiry. The proposed location of the CN project is within one kilometer of approximately 34,000 current and future residents, one hospital, twelve schools and two long-term care homes. The truck-rail hub would operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week and result in at least 1,600 new trips to and from the facility daily by heavy-duty container trucks.
The significant health and environmental effects caused by this project are unavoidable. The Federal Review Panel concluded that, even after taking feasible mitigation into account, the project would cause significant effects on air quality and human health and cumulative effects on air quality, human health, wildlife habitat, and land available for agricultural use.
Concerns remain about the federal enforceability of mitigation conditions proposed by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada. The vast majority of the over 200 mitigation measures proposed by the Agency are not even enforceable by the Federal Government.
For more information about CN’s proposal and the Halton Municipalities’ position on this project, please visit halton.ca/cn.
The Regional Municipality of Halton serves more than 595,000 residents in the City of Burlington, the Town of Halton Hills, the Town of Milton, and the Town of Oakville. Halton Region is committed to meeting the needs of its residents through the delivery of cost-effective, quality programs and services, including water and wastewater; Regional roads and planning; paramedic services; waste management; public health; social assistance; children’s and seniors’ services; housing services; heritage programs; emergency management and economic development. For more information, call 311 or visit Halton Region’s website at halton.ca.