Ford to declare Billy Bishop Airport a ‘special economic zone’ to allow jets

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he will use new legislation to declare Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport a “special economic zone,” meaning any provincial or municipal law could be scrapped to speed up the extension of the facility’s runway to allow jets.

The unprecedented move, announced at a Billy Bishop hangar on Monday, follows the Premier’s vow two weeks ago to expropriate the municipal government’s interest in the island airport, in order to get around Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow’s opposition to landing jets at the site.

Currently, Air Canada and Porter Airlines only fly smaller turboprop planes from the waterfront runway, although whether or not jets should be permitted has been debated for decades.

Naming the airport a special economic zone would be the first time Mr. Ford has used what is known as Bill 5, which was passed last year. The legislation handed his government sweeping powers that were condemned by opposition parties, First Nations and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association as an antidemocratic overreach.

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The Premier did provide details on precisely how he would use Bill 5, but did pledge to consult First Nations first. The move would allow the government to exempt the project – which involves extending Billy Bishop’s main runway by hundreds of metres at its ends, out into the lake – from any provincial environmental rules or other laws as it sees fit, and void the need for any city hall approvals.

This week, Toronto councillors are set to debate a mostly symbolic resolution against the airport plan. In an e-mailed statement, Mayor Olivia Chow said Torontonians must not be denied a say on their waterfront by a “unilateral action to grab city land.” Community group NoJetsTO said the province’s plan would “strip all environmental rights and protections” from the site.

At Queen’s Park, as MPPs returned after an extended winter break, opposition parties criticized Mr. Ford’s move, saying he was fixating on Toronto’s waterfront and ignoring other parts of the province.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles called the airport plan a “distraction” from the Ford government’s other issues, such as the health care system or recent cuts to assistance for postsecondary students.

Mr. Ford also said Monday that his legislation to expropriate the city’s airport land would come soon. This move would allow the province to take over the city’s position in the decades-old deal, known as the tripartite agreement, that governs the airport.

The agreement, first signed by the city, the Toronto Port Authority – which is a federal agency – and the federal government in 1983, currently bans jets. But the port authority, as well as Porter Airlines, and the company that owns the terminal, Nieuport Aviation, have been championing a plan to allow jets that they say are as quiet or quieter than the turboprops.

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The province’s Bill 5 does not give him the power to circumvent any federal legislation that affects the project. But Mr. Ford told reporters he has the federal government’s full support for his plans.

Speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill on Monday, federal Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon reiterated that his government was interested in the jets plan, but stopped short of explicitly endorsing it. He said Ottawa will be “working with our partners, once the City of Toronto, now the Province of Ontario, to design a path forward for that facility.”

Mr. Ford said the airport expansion is needed to create jobs in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The Premier also said it would provide better competition for the much larger Pearson International Airport northwest of the city. But Mr. Ford has not said how many more flights or passengers he wants to move through Billy Bishop, which now sees about two million travellers a year.

Questioned by reporters, he said his government would still take environmental concerns into account – but would not “dilly-dally” on accelerating the port authority’s plans to expand the runway, which involves using fill.

“Last time I checked out there, that’s a pretty big lake,” Mr. Ford said.

When introducing Bill 5, Mr. Ford had vowed to use it first to speed up mining in the remote northern Ring of Fire, prompting some First Nations to warn of blockades. Ontario has since backed off this idea.

The island airport has been a fault line in local Toronto politics for decades, with community groups and local politicians warning that dramatically expanding the airport, or allowing noisy jets, would spoil the parks, beaches, trails and residential areas along the waterfront. But the small, convenient Billy Bishop Airport has won over many business travellers with its proximity to downtown.

The Premier blamed the “the left” at city hall for blocking airport expansion, but did not name the city’s NDP mayor, on whom he often lavishes praise. Asked about the impact of jet flight paths on waterfront development, which may require lower building heights, he accused the city of approving tall condos along the corridor on purpose.

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 recently 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.

Ms. Chow raised safety concerns, noting that work has yet to begin on the runway buffer zones, even as a deadline set for next summer looms.

“We cannot let the province’s future plans make the airport unsafe today,” she said.

There are also questions about whether other changes on the mainland will be needed to accommodate the increased passengers expected to come with jets. Ms. Chow raised the possibility that the province and the federal government might seek to seize more city property, adjacent to the airport.

With a report from Ian Bailey in Ottawa