The Problem:

CN Rail's Milton Logistics Hub, a $250 million intermodal truck-rail terminal on Halton subdivision land between Britannia Road and Tremaine Road is already under construction. The project was federally approved in 2021, despite assurances from our local MP Adam van Koeverden, over the sustained objection of the Town of Milton, Halton Region, and thousands of residents. The Town and Region spent over $30 million in legal fees pursuing every available avenue to stop or modify this project, including a 2024 Federal Court ruling that found the original approval flawed in its failure to adequately protect human health only for that ruling to be overturned on appeal and leave to the Supreme Court of Canada denied in May 2025.

Now, a new concern has emerged. The developer behind the Milton Link project, marketed through miltonlink.ca and represented by Matthews Real Estate, is proposing a multi-phase commercial and logistics development directly adjacent to the CN hub site, spanning land between Highway 25, First Line Street, Lower Baseline West, and Tremaine Road. The four-phase site plan shown at this open house adds significant warehouse, logistics, and commercial building mass to an area already under pressure from the CN intermodal terminal.

The May 6th, open house is being conducted by communications consultants (Kirk & Co. and similar PR firms have previously run CN's engagement process), not by the landowner or developer directly. Residents should be aware that while this process is presented as community consultation, the underlying planning and development decisions are made elsewhere. We are here to ensure our voices are formally recorded. The open house is a legal requirement and a check-the-box activity being ran by PR firms who aren’t really interested in your concerns or how this project impacts you or your family.

Our Concerns

1. Air Quality and Public Health
   The CN hub is projected to generate approximately 800 diesel truck round trips per day. The Federal Court's own 2024 ruling found that the original Cabinet approval failed to adequately assess "direct adverse environmental effects on health." The Milton Link development compounds this by adding further warehouse and logistics facilities that will draw additional heavy truck traffic along Britannia Road, First Line Street, and Tremaine Road, directly through or adjacent to existing and planned residential communities.
2. Cumulative Environmental Impact
   The site plan shows stormwater management ponds and development that encroaches on or near woodlots, wetlands, and tributaries identified in the legend of the conceptual site plan. These natural features provide flood mitigation, wildlife corridors, and groundwater recharge for the broader Halton watershed. No cumulative environmental assessment has been conducted that accounts for both the CN hub and the Milton Link expansion together. The CN hub was initially assessed under CEAA 2012, a Harper-era law that weakened the original CEAA's environmental protections.
   The CN hub was initially assessed under CEAA 2012, a Harper-era law that weakened the original CEAA's environmental protections. The 2019 Impact Assessment Act replaced it with significantly stronger requirements, mandatory health impact assessments, climate commitments, and full transparency; standards the CN approval demonstrably failed to meet. The Milton Link expansion makes this worse: the combined scope of both developments should trigger a fresh assessment under the stronger IAA framework
3. Inadequate Infrastructure and Traffic Planning
   Milton's road network was not designed for the volume of heavy freight traffic that the CN hub alone will generate. The addition of four phases of logistics and commercial development through Milton Link will further strain intersections at Britannia Road/HWY 25, First Line Street/Lower Baseline West, and Tremaine Road. Residents of surrounding communities, including those near Bronte Street South will experience significant increases in noise, road damage, and traffic safety incidents. With new condo tower development on RR25 this project invites a direct collision between industrial truck traffic and residential growth. The result will be a decline in quality of life for Milton’s citizens.
4. Incompatibility with Milton's Official Plan and Growth Vision
   Milton has consistently planned for this region's future as a mixed-use, transit-supportive community. The CN hub was imposed federally over local opposition. Milton Link now seeks to capitalize on that precedent to add further industrial-scale development that is fundamentally incompatible with the character of the surrounding area and the long-term planning vision of the Town of Milton and Halton Region. We already have a glut of large, vacant distribution centers in the James Snow Business Park. We do not need more. Milton's town council has a policy that says we do not need to expand the Urban boundary, this project would require re-zoning.
5. Consultation Process Concerns
   This open house does not constitute adequate public consultation. We call on the Town of Milton and Halton Region to require full Planning Act hearings, independent environmental assessment of cumulative impacts, and transparent written responses to every community submission. Verbal comments at a developer-run open house are not part of any legal record unless formally submitted in writing.

We, the Undersigned, Demand:

• The Milton Town Council and Halton Regional Council to confirm publicly that the Milton Link development site falls outside the current Milton Urban Boundary, and to commit that no official plan amendment or rezoning application enabling this development will proceed without full Planning Act public hearings, independent cumulative environmental and health assessment, and transparent written responses to all community submissions.
• A full cumulative environmental and health impact assessment covering both the CN Logistics Hub and the Milton Link development together, before any Milton Link planning approvals proceed.
• A commitment from the Province of Ontario that no Minister's Zoning Order (MZO) will be issued to bypass the standard rezoning and Official Plan Amendment process for the Milton Link development, and that any provincial intervention in this file will only occur through full public Planning Act processes, not executive orders that circumvent municipal and community oversight.
• Representation from our MPP and the Province of Ontario that no changes to Greenbelt, Protected Countryside, or employment land designations adjacent to the Milton Link site will be made outside of a full Municipal Comprehensive Review process.
• Mandatory Planning Act hearings, not developer-run open houses, with formal written comment periods administered by the Town of Milton and Halton Region.
• Independent traffic and infrastructure review of the combined impact of CN hub truck trips and Milton Link commercial traffic on Britannia Road, First Line Street, Lower Baseline West, and Tremaine Road corridors.
• Protection of all identified woodlots, wetlands, and tributaries on and adjacent to the Milton Link site from any development encroachment.
• A formal request to the federal government — specifically Prime Minister Carney's cabinet — to re-examine the CN hub approval in light of changing economic conditions, tariff impacts on goods movement, and unresolved public health concerns, as called for by Halton Region Council in 2025.
• Written responses to all submissions received at this open house, published publicly within 60 days.
• Representation from our MPs, Adam van Koeverden, as a cabinet member, and Kristina Tesser Derksen (who backed this project as a member of Milton's Chamber of Commerce) to finally use their positions within the governing party to represent their constituents, not CN Rail.