Neighbours;

I attended a forum on the Toronto City Centre (Island) Airport last Thursday night that was held at the St. Lawrence Centre. As the airport's status has a direct impact on our local community as well as the city at large, I thought I would share some of what I learned that evening. Three panelists addressed the audience. Bill Freeman of Community AIR and Shelly Petrie of Toronto Environmental Alliance (both groups oppose the airport's continued operation) and Lisa Freitt, chair of the Toronto Port Authority, the airport's operators and proponents of its expansion.

Lisa Freitt made the following case for the airport expansion. The Toronto Port Authority has a mandate to at least break even on the airport operation. The airport is too small to make money. Ergo, expand the airport, increase the traffic and the airport will make money. Lisa also made the case that the downtown corporate community like the idea of a downtown airport, that it would be good for "economic development". Lisa's arguments were entirely based on potential economic spin off (mainly for the airport itself), and rebutting airport critics' criticism of the environmental impact of the airport on Toronto's waterfront.

Bill Freeman made several points in regard to the economics, viability and desirability of a downtown waterfront airport. The island airport sits on possibly the nicest piece of waterfront property in the entire GTA, featuring unparalleled views of Humber Bay to the west, and the Toronto skyline to the east. In the 1920's, before the airport was built, the site was reminiscent of a cottage country resort town, with small hotels, guest houses, restaurants and a fabulous beach. Community Air have developed a proposal to redevelop the airport site along these lines, with the addition of modern environmental features such as electricity producing windmills.

Some background:
The Island Airport is a perennial money loser, and requires an operating subsidy of five million dollars from the City of Toronto, and services an average of 120 passengers per day. The Port Authority is proposing to expand the airport's traffic to accommodate approximately 900,000 passengers per day. This would mean an airplane would take off every minute from the airport. How many of those flights will be over our community, adding to the already intolerable levels of pollution?

In order to accommodate the expansion, and because the airport currently does not meet Transport Canada's minimum safety requirements, the port authority needs to build a fixed link (or bridge) from Bathurst Quay to the Airport. City Council voted in November to spend 10 million dollars to build the fixed link. The proposed airline operator, Regco, originally promised to pay for the bridge, but have reneged and now you and I are paying for it.

In addition, the Port Authority are currently suing the City of Toronto over port lands that were transferred by the Federal government to the city several years ago. The Port Authority didn't like the deal so now they're suing the city. There's a tentative settlement which would see the city pay the Port Authority 60 million dollars - coincidentally the amount the Authority needs to build the the fixed link, a multi-story car park underneath Little Norway Park on Bathers Quay, a large fuel tank farm and various new roads and interchanges to accommodate the expected increase in vehicular traffic at the foot of Bathurst. This at a time when the city has made cuts to virtually every department.

The island airport was built at a time when Toronto's waterfront was a thriving industrial area. Industry has left, and the waterfront is now zoned as a recreational and residential area. Currently, 40,000 people live in the immediate vicinity of the airport, and are subject to the noise and pollution currently created by its users.

The "quality of life" argument seems to have fallen on deaf ears at City Council. Council voted 29 - 11 to build the fixed link and support airport expansion. By the way, Councilor Mario Silva and all the current mayoralty candidates except David Miller strongly support airport expansion. If the "quality of life" argument hasn't worked, then perhaps the economic one will.

Pearson Airport is nearing completion of a multi billion dollar expansion that will double its capacity from 25 to 50 million passengers per year. In a matter of days, Federal Transport Minister Colenette will announce that a rail link will be built from downtown Toronto to Pearson. There is also the strong possibility that Via Rail and Bombardier will build a superfast passenger train service servicing the Quebec to Windsor corridor, encompassing many of the cities (Ottawa, Montreal, London) which would be served from the Island Airport.

World wide, air travel is down 50% since September 11. With the current Persian Gulf war, no one expects this figure to improve anytime soon. Air Canada lost 1 billion dollars last year and will likely file for bankruptcy protection in the coming weeks, as some of the world's largest airlines (Swissair, United) have already done.

Into this transportation context enters REGCO, the proposed airline which would operate from the Island Airport. Proposed because they have neither aircraft (Bombardier QT Turbo Props would apparently be built), nor landing rights at most of their proposed destinations).

The more conspiratorial minded believe that the fixed link and airport expansion is not about air travel at all, but that it is actually a trojan horse concealing an entirely different development agenda. Once the fixed link is built, the land value of the island airport site would skyrocket. Condos anyone? Perhaps Toronto's first Casino. Given the stench of corruption at city hall (Union Station, MPI Computer leasing scandal) does this seem implausible?

To my mind the island airport issue is the Spadina Expressway and Pickering Airport rolled into one. It's a 1950's solution for a 21st century city. No one is demanding an expanded airport except a small group of bureaucrats and investors who stand to potentially profit from it. Even the Toronto Board of Trade, when polled about their priorities for new infrastructure put a Pearson rail link at the top of their list. An expanded island airport was somewhere around 5th or 6th.

Although city council have approved the planned expansion, various agencies of the federal government still need to sign off. Noted train buff Transport Minister David Colenette has publicly stated that the airport serves no useful function and that he would like to close it. He has the power to do so. Minister Colenette can be contacted at:
Hon. David Collenette, Minister of Transport
E-mail: mintc@tc.gc.ca
Telephone: (613) 991-0700
Fax: (613) 995-0327
Mail: 330 Sparks Street, Ottawa K1A 0N5

For more information I recommend going to Community Air's website www.communityair.org

If there is sufficient interest in our community I would like to organize an evening information meeting for residents, at which airport proponents and opponents will be invited to address your concerns. I'm hoping that the greater Dufferin Grove community will take a collective stand on this issue.

Cheers,
Andrew Munger