The Canadian government may still not have an official position on expanding Billy Bishop Airport in Toronto, but it wants to know what you think about the idea.
On Monday, the federal government launched its public consultations on the future of the airport, including whether or not its runway should be expanded to allow larger planes to land there.
“Feedback gathered through this consultation process will guide any future decisions,” the feds wrote.
The consultation comes after the Ford government passed a law to take control of the City of Toronto’s role in running the airport and to give itself expropriation powers over large swathes of Toronto Island.
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford has said expanding the airport is vital for Ontario’s economy by allowing more flights into the heart of Toronto.
As recently as Tuesday, he defended the move as an economic driver.
“It’s going to make Pearson more competitive on flights, and it’s just going to be convenient,” Ford told reporters in Washington, D.C.
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Prime Minister Mark Carney, however, has the power to kill or severely limit the project because the federal government controls both aviation and the agreement that governs Billy Bishop.
He recently said he had “not personally formed an opinion” about the airport expansion yet.
Advocacy group Environmental Defence said the airport should not be expanded.
“Turning the Island Airport into a much larger jet airport would increase air, noise and water pollution, cancel thousands of new homes already in development in Toronto’s Port Lands, threaten the Toronto Islands and mainland parks, and bring even more debilitating traffic and gridlock to Toronto’s downtown,” they wrote in a statement.
The airport has been there for almost a century, so well before the condos and well before the squatters moved into their bungalows on the nearby island. The airport expansion would not be on park land but would be man made land, just like Ontario Place was never a park before the Liberals shuttered it a decade ago. All of these are on man made land for commercial use. Chris the NDP MPP should maybe focus on dealing with local issues that actually impact his constituents. He isn’t his party’s spokesperson, even though he does nothing but speak out against the provincial government.