Toronto island airport expansion killed by ‘fringe group,’ Ontario minister says

Ottawa gave in to the demands of a “fringe group” when it rejected a pitch to expand Toronto’s island airport, Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said Tuesday. He said the province was disappointed by the federal government’s decision to nix Premier Doug Ford’s proposed expansion of the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport to allow jets to land and take off from it. The runway is currently too short for jets.

Federal Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon rejected the plan last week after 87 per cent of the 87,000 respondents to a public consultation opposed the idea. Sarkaria said the province was “disappointed” by MacKinnon’s decision. Related: Federal government rejects Ford’s Billy Bishop airport expansion plan Chow pens urgent motion to stop Ford’s ‘land grab’ of Toronto Islands “We’ve seen the federal government here listen to a small fringe group in Toronto, but we as the province will continue to push forward on a modernization of this airport because it’s the right thing to do,” Sarkaria said.

The Progressive Conservative government at Queen’s Park made the island airport expansion a key feature in the spring sitting. It tabled and passed Bill 110, which became law in early June. That law gave the province the ability to take over the entirety of the Toronto Islands, though the government said it would only take what’s necessary despite the language in the legislation.

The province also booted the city from a long-standing tripartite agreement that governs Billy Bishop airport. Ontario took over the city’s spot in that agreement, joining the federal government and the Toronto Port Authority, an arm’s-length federal agency. Sarkaria said the port authority will soon be putting forward its modernization plan.

Toronto Port Authority CEO RJ Steenstra told a Queen’s Park committee studying Bill 110 that the airport expansion would cost upwards of $5 billion, which would be paid for by airlines and passengers, over 25 years. Steenstra said at that hearing that he had shared preliminary plans with the federal and provincial governments, but not the city, which he said was due to scheduling issues. The Ford government wants to see 10 million passengers per year fly through the island airport, up from two million passengers.

The airport’s passenger terminal is owned by Nieuport Aviation, which is controlled by J.P. Blasting Ottawa for listening to 'a small fringe group in Toronto,' Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria insists the project 'makes sense.'