Amazon Axes Plan to Build Canada’s Largest Warehouse in Ontario

Amazon has officially turned down the Duffins Creek wetland property in Pickering, Ontario, located just off Highway 401, east of Brock Road, for the site of the retail giant’s largest warehouse in Canada — reports CBC News.

A company official stated yesterday that the wetland property is no longer in contention for Amazon Canada’s upcoming warehouse and fulfillment center project, which could be as large as four million square feet (much larger than the company’s Ottawa warehouse).

Due to Amazon’s interest in the property, the City of Pickering and the Toronto Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) planned on granting permission to the property owner, the Triple Group of Companies, to begin destroying the wetland, which is protected and classified as provincially significant.

The official also iterated that Amazon Canada is exploring a number of different locations for its upcoming project, and the company never signed a lease or made any commitments for the Pickering location.

How Amazon’s withdrawal from talks for the property will affect the property owner’s chances of getting approval to build on the protected land currently remains unknown.

However, Pickering Mayor Dave Ryan posted a statement in a tweet yesterday, saying that with Amazon pulling out of talks, “the appropriate next step is to pause any immediate disruption to the wetlands”.

The Mayor also expressed his disappointment over the loss of the “2,000 jobs, tens of millions of dollars in development charges, and millions of dollars in annual tax revenues” the Amazon warehouse would have brought the city.

When asked by CBC News for a comment, Amazon Canada’s Head of Communications Dave Bauer said the following in an email: “We were always considering multiple sites for our expansion and we take environmental issues very seriously.”

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