Runway at Billy Bishop could need up to 900 metres of new landmass for jets, agency says

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Plans to expand the runway at Billy Bishop Airport on the Toronto Islands to accommodate jets could involve adding up to 900 metres of extended land into Lake Ontario, much more than proposed when the idea was last quashed a decade ago.

But the head of the Toronto Port Authority, the federal agency that oversees the facility – and is driving expansion plans championed in recent weeks by Premier Doug Ford – says it can be done with minimal impacts on the city’s inner harbour and its plans for high-rise housing nearby.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail on Monday, Roelof-Jan (RJ) Steenstra, the TPA’s president and chief executive officer, outlined for the first time some of the details of the expansion plans.

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The draft plans won’t be finished for months, and he said they will be put forward for consultations. The changes must also be approved by the federal government and Transport Canada safety regulators.

The proposed additional runway length itself is 600 metres, far more than the 442 metres floated with jet-expansion plans a decade ago. The increase would come on top of the new 150-metre buffer zones that are already set to be added to each end of the runway by next summer, for a total of about 900 metres.

But Mr. Steenstra said he expects that most of the added landmass for the longer runway area – up to 750 metres of it – would jut out into Lake Ontario from the western end. That would see the runway parallel the shoreline of Ontario Place, where Mr. Ford’s government has plans for a spa and waterpark, science centre and expanded concert venue.

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This runway configuration could mean that only the already planned 150-metre safety area would need to be added to the runway’s eastern tip. Mr. Steenstra said this would leave boaters in the city’s inner harbour to the east with a comparable marine exclusion zone to the one they have to navigate now.

“We are very, very conscientious of this magnificent harbour that we’re responsible for,” he said. “… We are not interested in doing something so unbalanced for the entire harbour.”

The changes would also not require any new flight-path restrictions that could scupper high-rise housing plans in the city’s Port Lands farther east, he said, as some at city hall have feared.

The notion of expansion at this airport has been controversial in Toronto for decades, as critics and local activists warn that frequent jets overhead will disrupt waterfront boaters, trails, parks and residents.

Last week, the Ontario government introduced legislation to expropriate, with a promise of compensation, the city’s stake in the airport, and potentially other waterfront and island land. This was done in order to circumvent Mayor Olivia Chow and her council’s objections.

The Premier had first vowed to do so more than a month ago. The change would allow him to take over Toronto’s spot in the tripartite agreement, a 43-year-old deal that also includes the TPA and the federal government. The agreement governs the airport, and currently bans jets.

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Mr. Ford says allowing jets would be good for the economy and boost competition. While Prime Minister Mark Carney has said that the idea is an “interesting vision,” his government has not publicly committed to the expansion. Mr. Ford has said that Mr. Carney is on board. Mr. Steenstra told The Globe on Monday that the federal government was in favour.

The Premier, who recently backed out of a private-jet purchase for his own use after a public outcry, has also pledged to use his new powers to declare the airport a “special economic zone” where all provincial and municipal laws could be suspended to speed up approvals.

But despite his hurry-up approach, both his government and the Toronto Port Authority had for weeks declined to make public basic information about the plans, including the required length of the runway.

Mr. Steenstra said the TPA intends to work with the city as it rolls out its plans. But Braman Thillainathan, a spokesman for Ms. Chow, said on Monday that city hall has been left in the dark.

“We are learning about new developments on this file through media reports, including the new details you’ve shared through your inquiry,” Mr. Thillainathan said in a e-mail responding to Globe questions about the plan. “This process has been far from transparent.”

His statement reiterates the mayor’s opposition to Mr. Ford’s unilateral expropriation, which also includes a third of the city’s Little Norway Park on the mainland across from Billy Bishop.

Mr. Steenstra told The Globe that the property is needed to expand the airport’s mainland terminal. Other nearby land will be handed to the city for parkland, he said.

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The fine print of the province’s expropriation bill would also allow Ontario to seize almost all of the rest of the Toronto Islands parks and beaches, although it says it will only take land needed for the airport expansion.

Mr. Steenstra said the TPA has no intention of pushing for any seizure of swaths of land on the islands far from the airport.

“It’s not the province’s plan. It’s our plan, right?” Mr. Steenstra said. “It’s our airport.”

The changes outlined by Mr. Steenstra on Monday would stretch the current 1,218-metre runway to more than 1,800 metres. That’s still short compared with the Toronto area’s massive Pearson International Airport and other full-size airports.

But it’s significantly longer than the 1,508-metre runway at London City Centre airport in the British capital. That airport accommodates the same kind of smaller, single-aisle jets that Mr. Streenstra says Billy Bishop hopes to welcome, such as the Embraer E195 E-2, which Porter flies out of Pearson, and the Airbus A220. Large jet aircraft are not on the table, he said.

Both of these models can carry about 135 passengers. (The larger A220-300 can handle 160). The TPA says they would be quieter and less polluting than the current 78-seater De Havilland Dash-8 400 turboprops now operated by Porter Airlines and Air Canada out of Billy Bishop. Mr. Steenstra said allowing jets is needed because these turboprops are no longer being made.

Critics of the airport have been alarmed by a provincial estimate, citing a TPA plan, calling for 10 million annual passengers, or five times the current number. But Mr. Steenstra said this is a long-term target, 30 to 50 years away.