Hon. Minister Wilkinson: Overturn your decision

January 23, 2021

The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, P.C., M.P. Minister of Environment and Climate Change Chair of the Cabinet Committee on Economy and the Environment House of CommonsOttawa, ON K1A 0A6 Jonathan.Wilkinson@parl.gc.ca Telephone: 613-995-1225 | Fax: 613-992-7319

RE: CN Logistic Hub, Milton

Hon. Minister Wilkinson,

As a child, I heard my dad say, "Life is priceless." I understood that to mean human life was the most important, you could not put a price or dollar value on it. As an adult, I understand that "life" included animals and our environment and that made sense to me. I felt the lesson was to value what we have and take care of it because all life is priceless—you can't put a dollar value on it—protect and cherish it all.

I now recognize, not everyone shares the same mindset. Sadly, it appears that some people, and some big corporate businesses only see a monetary value of life; human, animal and the environment each having a price tag; and being expendable. We each might consider examples, which sadly demonstrate this concept and monetary measure of value. It's a slippery slope.

Minister Wilkinson, you are quoted on Twitter saying, "Help us build a healthier, fairer, and more resilient future that we can be proud to pass on to our children and grandchildren." Prime Minister Trudeau stated, "Canadians don't have to choose between clean air and good jobs. This strengthened climate plan will help us build a healthier, fairer, and more resilient future that we can be proud to pass on to our children and grandchildren." We, as Canadian citizens and residents of Halton, want to believe those statements to be truthful. However, approving the CN logistic hub makes us feel those statements are only relevant in select situations and do not include us. We ask where is the fairness in that? We consider all Canadians' health and lives matter, and we believe you do too! Please make that a truthful statement for all Canadians inclusively.

As Halton residents, we feel unheard and undervalued. We have great concern for ourselves and more importantly for our children and the generations to come. We see that they, more than us, will suffer the cumulative impacts of this development. The responsibility is yours Minister Wilkinson and ours, to prevent that impact and protect lives, all lives.

It's important to know communities are becoming informed and knowledgeable of the prevailing concerns and issues. We have significant concern over this development; please know we are watching. We are watching CN, and we are watching elected officials. We ask all politicians and elected representatives to hold the best interest for our lives and that of future generations. We must be heard loud and clear.

We must not quantify the community impact on monetary value; CN's corporate profit over human health. As we have already stated, life is priceless; we know that to be true. We hold our Government accountable for the decisions made on our behalf. We expect the decisions to be made in the best interest of our health and future—each of us inclusively! We are currently living in a time of a WorldWide pandemic, where the health issue of Covid-19, has put many peoples lives on hold. How can we show that a health issue is critical, yet the CN yard's lifetime impact is not given more significant consideration towards a community?

You will continue to hear from us. We respectfully ask you to overturn your decision and refuse approval of the CN Hub in Milton. It's the right thing to do.