Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he plans to declare Toronto's Billy Bishop Airport a 'special economic zone,' which could speed up the extension of the facility’s runway to allow jets.Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s proposal to expand Toronto’s downtown Billy Bishop Airport to allow jets is an interesting vision – but he stopped short of explicitly endorsing the plan.
Mr. Carney, appearing Monday alongside the Premier as well as Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, weighed in for the first time on Mr. Ford’s desire to extend the waterfront facility’s runway to allow jets, which Ms. Chow has long opposed.
Mr. Ford has said the province will expropriate the municipal government’s interest in the airport, located on the Toronto Islands, and declare it a “special economic zone,” meaning any provincial or municipal law could be scrapped to speed up construction.
At present, Air Canada and Porter Airlines only fly smaller turboprop planes from Billy Bishop although the question of whether or not jets should be permitted has been debated for decades.
A decades-old deal, called the tripartite agreement, currently governs the airport. The agreement was first signed by the city, the Toronto Port Authority, which is a federal agency, and the federal government in 1983.
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Mr. Carney on Monday said the federal government has been speaking with the province about its shared jurisdiction.
“It’s a very interesting vision, big possibilities there. So, we have some component of responsibility there, and we’re working for it,” Mr. Carney said at an unrelated housing announcement with all three levels of government.
The Prime Minister added that if Toronto and Ontario consolidate their responsibilities, “there an efficiency that comes there” and the federal government can deal directly with the province.
“It’s something that’s moving. The federal government’s now getting involved, but we’re not going to make a premature determination on it,” he said, adding that levels of government are co-operating to make progress on a number of issues.
Speaking after Mr. Carney, Mr. Ford said he wants to continue building alongside the federal government, on shared initiatives including transit.
“Our approach with the airport is collaborate with the federal government and the city and ourselves and bring a great opportunity to the city of Toronto that’s well overdue,” he said.
The tripartite agreement over Billy Bishop currently bans jets. But the Toronto Port Authority, as well as Porter Airlines and Nieuport Aviation, the company that owns the terminal, have been championing a plan to allow jets that they say are as quiet or quieter than the turboprops.
The city had recently agreed to extend the tripartite agreement to 2045 and allow the addition of safety buffer zones beyond the end of the runways, as now required by Transport Canada. This would allow the current fleet of turboprops to continue to use the airport. But jets require a much longer extension.
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Ms. Chow has previously raised safety concerns, noting that work has yet to begin on the runway buffer zones, even as a deadline set for next summer looms.
She told reporters briefly on Monday that the Prime Minister is in “the driver’s seat.”
“What I’m most concerned is that they need to now do the extension of the runway,” she said, referring to the buffer zones.
On the jets, she said: “There should be a process where everyone gets consulted.”
Local Liberals MPs attending Monday’s announcement agreed.
“People are talking about jets. That’s not the issue. The issue is making sure that the airport runs efficiently and that the community down there, and the community out here, and the community from Toronto is going to be consulted as part of those ongoing discussions,” said Liberal MP James Maloney, who represents the riding of Etobicoke-Lakeshore.
Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal MP for the Davenport riding and chair of the federal Toronto caucus, said any decisions about the airport must be done unanimously by all three parties in the agreement – two of which are federal. She added that decisions could take a year or two to complete.
“That’s more than enough time for meaningful consultations,” she said.