Liberal MPs from Toronto downplayed the provincial plans to expand the Toronto island airport, despite Premier Doug Ford's push for the project.
Liberal MPs hailing from the country’s biggest city downplayed provincial plans to expand the Toronto island airport, following Premier Doug Ford ’s recent removal of impediments to realizing his goal.
The Premier says he wants to allow jets to use the facility and supports a plan that would require creating nearly a kilometre of artificial peninsulas, jutting out into Lake Ontario, to lengthen the airport’s main runway. The expansion, Ontario has said, could see Billy Bishop accommodate 10 million passengers a year, five times the current number.the city’s role in governing the airport – against the wishes of the mayor and council.
The province is also looking to designate the airport as a special economic zone, which would allow it to override regulations and provincial laws in order to fast-track construction. Any expansion would have to be approved by the federal government. It’s estimated the project would cost up to $5-billion over 25 years.
The proposal dominated the provincial legislature’s spring sitting and has polarized the electorate, but Liberal MPs were cautious in their comments Wednesday outside their caucus room on Parliament Hill. The governing federal Liberal Party holds all but one of the seats in the provincial capital. The strongest concerns raised came from long-time MP Judy Sgro, who represents a district in northwest Toronto.
She said she is “absolutely” concerned that the airport could get too big and too busy and noted that traffic in the area is already “horrendous. ” Provincial opposition parties have been outraged by Ontario’s expansion plan, saying it will destroy the waterfront and ignores the democratic will of city residents. And some MPPs are taking their message to Ottawa next week.
Meanwhile, most of Ms. Sgro’s colleagues from Toronto sought to underplay the proposed expansion or avoided disclosing their position by saying they need more information.
“I haven’t seen a plan,” MP Karim Bardeesy said repeatedly when asked by reporters for his opinion. He noted that Transport Canada has already mandated the runway’s expansion for safety reasons, but that requirement is for a 150-metre safety zone and is separate from Mr. Ford’s proposal. Toronto Liberal MP Karim Bardeesy rises in the House of Commons on May 1.
The notion that Ontario has not yet made a formal proposal was a talking point that MPs Vince Gasparro and James Maloney also leaned on.
“There are no proposed changes. The only change is the governance membership at Billy Bishop Airport,” said Mr. Maloney. Mr. Gasparro said he wants to see a detailed business case and environmental protection plan before landing on a position.
“I‘m not going to light my hair on fire because someone posts something on Twitter. I want to see a concrete plan before I say I’m going to support it or not,” Mr. Gasparro said. The airport’s governance changed last week when the province passed the Building Billy Bishop Airport Act, enabling the province to take over the city’s former role in the tripartite agreement with the federal government and the federal Toronto Port Authority.
The agreement currently restricts the airport’s commercial carriers to turboprops. Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon avoided disclosing what Ottawa’s position is on the proposed expansion, saying Wednesday, “We’ll respectfully sit down and talk about the way forward. ”Mr. Ford’s office said Wednesday that once the province completes the expropriation of the airport land that was previously the city’s, it will begin working with Ottawa and the Toronto Port Authority to advance the project.
Mr. Ford has repeatedly talked about his vision for a larger Billy Bishop airport, calling it a “crown jewel” in his plans for Toronto’s waterfront, which include a refurbished Ontario Place and possibly a new convention centre on an artificial island. He has said the expansion will boost the economy. But critics have long warned that jets and millions more passengers a year at Billy Bishop would cause traffic chaos and spoil the waterfront’s parks, trails, beaches and residential areas.
A group of Ontario NDP MPPs will travel to Ottawa next week to press Liberal MPs and Prime Minister Mark Carney to oppose the expansion. Mr. Carney, who previously called it an “interesting vision,” has not definitively given an opinion – although Mr. Ford has said the federal government is on board. NDP MPP Chris Glover, who represents a Toronto waterfront riding, told The Globe this week that he wants to hear a clear answer from the Prime Minister.
He noted that the previous Liberal government in 2015 shut down a proposal from Porter Airlines to expand the airport over citizens’ objections.
“People are furious about this,” Mr. Glover said. “The waterfront – it’s for everybody in Toronto. It is our waterfront, it is our playground. "
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