The Ford government is set to approve new regulations that would protect the flight paths around downtown hospitals months after the province inadvertently approved a skyscraper in a Mississauga flight path.
Over the summer, the province was forced to alter a Minister’s Zoning Order after it emerged it had greenlit a 50-storey building in a Toronto Pearson Airport Flight path.
Minister’s Zoning Orders — or MZOs — are a provincial tool that allows developers to bypass or sidestep local planning rules like building heights.
After MZO was ordered in Mississauga earlier in the year, airport officials had to take the government aside and explain that the building was in an emergency flight path and that its height could impact operations at the country’s busiest airport.
Now, the province appears to be going in the opposite direction, using the same tool to ensure development cannot occur within downtown flight paths used by emergency services.
The new zoning order set to be tabled by Queen’s Park is designed to protect certain flight paths around hospitals in downtown Toronto.
The province said the request came from the Ministry of Health, specifically to protect “air flight paths” used by Ornge helicopters taking patients in and out of Toronto.
A letter from Ornge to Toronto’s Sick Kids hospital, obtained by Global News, says the zoning order is urgently needed after a construction crane impeded emergency flight paths.
The letter, dated June 2023, said “current airspace protections are not sufficient” because of “encroachment.” It specifically points to a construction crane to the west of the Sick Kids helipad that “has now obstructed the flight path to the point where departures using the western flight path are no longer possible.”
The crane was erected in airspace used in an emergency if a helicopter engine were to fail, the letter said. As a result of the crane, helicopters would be unable to take off when the wind comes from the west, though operations during easterly winds would not be affected, nor would arrivals from the west.
“Unfortunately, historical data indicates that the wind is from this direction approximately 55% of the year,” the letter said, concluding that on days with westerly winds, helicopters would have to divert to alternative hospitals.
Global News asked the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing for details of the planned zoning order on Wednesday but did not receive a response as of Friday morning.
A letter from Unity Health and Sick Kids sent to then-housing minister Steve Clark in July and also obtained by Global News said that St. Michael’s Hospital and Sick Kids “need an MZO immediately” to address the “serious and urgent concerns regarding the future viability and usability of the flight paths to and from these hospitals given increased development around and below them.”
According to Sick Kids, the previous Ontario Liberal government issued an MZO for 2016 and 2017 to protect the flight paths as an interim measure.
The letter estimated the helipads have been used an average of 229 times per year, with some patients landing at Sick Kids and then being transferred to other hospitals.
“These Heliports are a critical resource for all major downtown hospitals dealing with a wide range of trauma and critical conditions,” the letter said.
It explained when the helipads aren’t available, patients must be taken to Billy Bishop Airport on Toronto Island, adding significantly to their transfer time.
“Time is of the essence when dealing with critical patient care situations and trauma,” the letter said.
A spokesperson for Unity Health, which runs St. Michael’s Hospital, said they had been “working collaboratively” with the government to try to maintain its flight paths.
“St. Michael’s is a level 1 trauma centre, meaning we take on the most complex trauma cases and play a central role in Ontario’s emergency response system,” the spokesperson said.
The Ford government announced Wednesday the flight path MZO was one of three it would push through before it began work to codify and correct the process.
In the same announcement, Housing Minister Paul Calandra said he had identified eight MZOs that would be revoked or amended, and another 14 he was watching closely.
The announcement came as part of a series of flipflops unveiled Wednesday, including the cancellation of municipal audits and a decision not to split up the Region of Peel.