Federal Court judge scraps Ottawa’s green light for CN Rail hub in Ontario
By The Canadian Press on March 4, 2024.
OTTAWA – A Federal Court decision has nixed Ottawa’s approval of a massive rail-and-truck hub in the Greater Toronto Area. The ruling states that the federal government failed to grapple with whether Canadian National Railway Co.’s planned facility in Milton, Ont., will have a harmful effect on human health, particularly through its impact on air quality. The decision sets aside the green light issued by cabinet in January 2021 and sends the $250-million project backto Ottawa for reconsideration. In the planning stage for years, it would see CN double its existing line and build a hub for containers to be loaded onto trucks from rail cars and vice versa in Ontario’s Halton Region. The judgment notes the facility would be used around the clockby diesel-powered trucks making 800 round trips per day as well as four trains hauled by locomotives also running on diesel, which contains toxic pollutants. CN says it is still reviewing the decision, but that the rail-and-truck hub would be a critical piece of infrastructure in Canada’s busiest region. This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2024. Companies in this story: (TSX:CNR) 9-8
