Milton Logistics Hub Project -- Establishment of Review Panel

OTTAWA, Dec. 6, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - The Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Dr. Scott Streiner, Chair of the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), announced today the establishment of a three-member panel to review the proposed Milton Logistics Hub Project in Ontario.

The Minister has appointed Ms. Lesley Griffiths as the Chair of the Review Panel, and Dr. Isobel Heathcote and Mr. William McMurray as panel members. Mr. McMurray is also a member of the CTA and has been assigned by the Chair of the CTA to decide whether the proposed rail construction should be approved under section 98 of the Canada Transportation Act.

The Agreement to Establish a Joint Process for the Review of the Milton Logistics Hub Project, signed by the Minister and the Chair of the CTA, establishes the mandate and authority of the Panel, as well as the procedures and timelines for the conduct of the review.

Under the Agreement, the Panel will conduct an assessment of the environmental effects of the project; consider Aboriginal traditional knowledge, comments received from the public and mitigation measures; conclude whether the project is likely to cause significant adverse effects; and identify any follow-up programs required.

As part of the review, information will be gathered to assist the CTA in its assessment of the reasonableness of the location of the new railway lines, including with respect to the requirements for the railway operations and the interests of the localities that could be affected by the lines.

The Canadian National Railway Company is proposing the construction and operation of a logistics hub, designed to transfer containers between trucks and railcars. The project would include a railway yard with more than 20 km of track and be located in Milton, Ontario, about 50 km west of Toronto.

Related Documents

• Backgrounder—Biographies of review panel members
• Approval to construct a railway line (Canadian Transportation Agency)

Backgrounder

Milton Logistics Hub Project
Establishment of Review Panel — Biographical Notes

Ms. Lesley Griffiths—Panel Chair

Ms. Lesley Griffiths is a retired environmental and community planner. For over 30 years she was Co-principal of Griffiths Muecke, a consulting firm providing services in the areas of consultation and consensus-building processes, environmental impact assessment, resource management and community development. Ms. Griffiths has extensive experience relating to coastal and offshore planning, stakeholder involvement and facilitation, resource developments, waste management, watershed management, recreation and tourism planning, and community development.

Ms. Griffiths has developed and implemented information and consultation strategies for community and social planning, community economic development, resource developments and various types of waste management planning.

Ms. Griffiths has substantive experience chairing environmental assessment panels in Atlantic Canada. She chaired the federal-provincial joint review panels examining the Voisey's Bay Mine and Mill Project in northern Labrador, the Sydney Tar Ponds remediation in Cape Breton, and the Marathon Platinum Group Metals and Copper Mine Project in Ontario, and co-chaired the joint review panel for the Lower Churchill Hydroelectric Project. She also served as a joint panel member for the review of the Halifax Harbour wastewater treatment facility. Ms. Griffiths was appointed as Process Lead for the Fundy Tidal Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment, and co-chaired the Nova Scotia Minister of Environment's Task Force on Clean Air, producing the province's first air quality management strategy.

Dr. Isobel Heathcote—Panel Member

Dr. Isobel Heathcote holds a B.Sc. from the University of Toronto and a M.S. and Ph.D. in biology from Yale University. Her work experience is diverse, encompassing employment in both the public and private sectors. She has worked as a consultant with Acres Consulting Services Ltd. and her own company, Wyndham Research Inc. She was also previously employed by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment in the Water Resources Branch, where she worked on water management issues in most of the major lake and river systems in Ontario. She and her staff conducted investigations throughout the Great Lakes, especially in the Areas of Concern, and contributed to the development of Remedial Action Plans for those areas.

Dr. Heathcote has directed and taught in the Environmental Studies and Environmental Sciences programs at the University of Toronto and at the University of Guelph, where she was cross-appointed in Environmental Engineering and Environmental Sciences. She was also the University of Guelph's Dean of Graduate Studies from 1999 to 2008, where she retired in 2010.

Dr. Heathcote's research interests focus on environmental management policy, integrated water management and watershed restoration, and environmental conflict resolution. Her consulting clients include agencies at all levels of government, Indigenous groups, non-governmental organizations and private sector organizations.

Dr. Heathcote was Chair of the provincial Municipal-Industrial Strategy for Abatement Advisory Committee and has served on numerous other advisory boards and committees, including the Multi-stakeholder Advisory Committee for Ontario's Environmental Commissioner. She was the Canadian Co-Chair of the Canada-United States International Joint Commission's Science Advisory Board (2001-2006) and a member of that Board from 1992 to 2006. She has served on the Boards of Directors of the Canadian Environmental Law Association, the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy, and the Canadian Pollution Prevention Centre. She has also chaired the Ontario Minister of the Environment's Industrial Pollution Action Team and has written several academic textbooks on environmental and watershed management.

Mr. William McMurray—Panel Member and Canadian Transportation Agency Member

A seasoned adjudicator and mediator in transportation matters, Mr. William McMurray has been a Member of the Canada Transportation Agency since 2014 and a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada since 1986. Prior to his appointment to the Agency, he practiced administrative law and litigation in the private sector for over 20 years, where he specialized in transportation matters. Mr. McMurray also provided adjudication services from 2009 to 2014, when he was Vice-Chairperson of the Canada Industrial Relations Board.

As a Member of the Canadian Transportation Agency, Mr. McMurray has decided many transportation related cases, including applications requesting authorities to construct railway lines. In these applications, he considered the potential impacts of projects on the interests of the localities, including the environmental effects associated with the construction and operation of railway infrastructure, Indigenous interests, and interests of local residents.

Over the course of his legal career, Mr. McMurray has argued numerous cases before the civil courts, the Federal Court, and the Federal Court of Appeal. He has successfully pleaded complex cases before a number of federal administrative tribunals, including the Canadian Transportation Agency and its predecessors. Mr. McMurray previously acted as senior counsel for some of Canada's largest employers in the transportation industry, including as counsel for the Canadian National Railway Company and Canadian Pacific Limited. While continuing to practice law, he also taught "transportation law and regulation" at McGill University in Montréal for over ten years.

Mr. McMurray studied common law and civil law at the University of Ottawa, and political economy at Université Laval in Québec City and at the University of Toronto. He completed his articles of clerkship while working in the Law Department of the Canadian Transport Commission, a predecessor of the Canadian Transportation Agency.

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SOURCE Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency

For further information: Media Relations: Caitlin Workman, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, 819-938-9436; Anita Szerze, Communications, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, [e-mail]; Tim Hillier, Communications, Canadian Transportation Agency, [e-mail]