Standing in a small park, with Toronto Islands and Billy Bishop airport looming in the background, Mayor Olivia Chow made her appeal to residents Friday morning against what she’s called a provincial “land grab.”
Write, call, complain. Let Premier Doug Ford know what you think of his plan to take over city property near the airport, which she warns will mean paving Little Norway Park and uprooting a long-standing community.
The province wants “to seize this land without consent, without a plan, without even telling Torontonians what they plan to build on it,” said Chow, flanked by local residents.
“To the provincial government: you do not get to erase this park without a fight,” Chow said, urging Torontonians to “make some noise” and tell Queen’s Park to back off its expropriation plans.
The appeal was a sharper more strident tone than the mayor has taken with the premier through much of her three years at city hall. It also speaks to the difficult line she’s trying to walk, as she comes out strongly against the province’s move to expropriate land, while not explicitly opposing Ford’s proposal to redevelop the airport and allow jet flights, which she says remains vague.
The nuanced stance is the latest example of the progressive mayor’s pragmatic approach to her relationship with the conservative premier, and could also be evidence of her belief that opposing jets on the waterfront may not be a winning political issue in this fall’s municipal election.
The Progressive Conservative government has yet to introduce detailed plans for the airport expansion, and says it is only eyeing one-third of Little Norway Park on the Eireann Quay side, along the route into Billy Bishop.
On Friday, a spokesperson for Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria reiterated that Little Norway Park “will remain a park.”
The province says it is “carefully assessing” city properties required for the expansion, and “any decisions on land requirements will be informed” by a due diligence process it’s undertaking with the Toronto Port Authority, Transport Canada and the city. It’s promising “fair compensation” for any expropriation.
Meanwhile, the port authority, the agency that owns and operates the airport, said it will work with the city and others to “ensure equal or greater overall park space for Little Norway Park.”
The bill the Ford government introduced Thursday would remove the city from the tripartite agreement that governs the airport, and replace it with the province. The legislation would also give Queen’s Park the authority to take over land near Billy Bishop to extend its runways, a requirement for jet flights. Currently the airport operates with turboprop planes.
Chow’s combative language about fighting the province over parkland came a day after she led council in passing a motion to register its opposition to the province’s expropriations, explore Toronto’s legal options, and ask the federal government, which is a signatory to the airport agreement, to intervene.
But while some of the residents and advocates who stood beside her at the press conference Friday shouted slogans and wore T-shirts demanding jets remain barred from the airport, the mayor didn’t voice opposition to permitting the high-powered aircraft, or the runway extension. Nor did her council motion Thursday.
When asked Friday why she hasn’t taken a stronger stance against expanding the airport, Chow pivoted to point out the lack of detail the province has provided on its proposal so far.
“There’s no plan. I’ve not seen the plan. How long is this runway? And how many cars will be coming in? … Who knows?” she said.
It was consistent from Chow, who since Ford revived the jet proposal in February has asserted the city’s right to have a say over its waterfront, but stopped short of outright opposing the idea or attacking Ford by name. That’s a contrast to her previous position on the issue; when Chow ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2014, she made opposition to jets flying out of Billy Bishop a centrepiece of her campaign.
But it is in keeping with how she has dealt with Ford since she took office in 2023. The two leaders have cultivated a close working relationship despite their political differences, and while she’s clashed with him over issues such as bike lanes and speed cameras, she has refrained from attacking him directly or letting the disputes get out of control.
Earlier in her term she agreed to drop opposition to Ford’s controversial designs on another waterfront facility, Ontario Place, as part of the so-called new deal to shore up municipal finances.
Some in the provincial government believe that the mayor has seized on the park issue because she realizes the expanded airport would be beneficial for Toronto, but it would anger her left-leaning base if she was seen to support it.
Whipping up opposition over the fate of the park allows the mayor to say “I’m not agreeing, I’m fighting this” without picking a wider fight she has no appetite for, said one government source, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about intergovernmental relations.
Chow’s office rejected the idea the mayor is privately on board with the expansion.
“What exactly would the mayor support or oppose? (The province is) hiding their plan for the expansion — or they don’t have a plan at all,” said Chow’s deputy chief of staff Shirven Rezvany in an email.
Sarkaria says the goal of the expansion is to “unlock” the airport’s “full potential and support its long-term modernization.” The province argues an upgraded airport will help meet travel demand in southern Ontario, take pressure off Pearson airport and increase competition, leading to more routes and cheaper flights. It would also create thousands of jobs in the aviation, tourism and construction sectors, according to Queen’s Park.
Polling suggests that Torontonians’ attitudes toward upgrading Billy Bishop have shifted since the early 2000s, when David Miller ran a successful mayoral campaign on a platform to prevent a bridge being built to the airport.
The Ford government’s internal polling shows that just under two-thirds of Toronto residents would support expanding the airport to allow aircraft capable of longer-distance flights.
A recent poll by Liaison Strategies found less support for allowing jets, with opinions in the city almost evenly split. Just over 50 per cent were opposed to expanding the airport if it required sacrificing park land, however. In light of those results, Chow taking a stand on Little Norway appears savvy, according to David Valentin, principal at Liaison.
But her problem is that, according to the poll, residents who are most likely to consider the island airport an election issue are downtown progressives who are already more likely to support Chow, Valentin said.
He speculated that by not confronting Ford directly on the expansion she’s attempting to minimize the risk of alienating suburban voters who don’t see it as a core issue, or being painted by critics as anti-business. But by using strong language to oppose the park takeover, she will be seen by her base as standing up to the premier.
“She can therefore have her cake and eat it too,” Valentin said.
Still, he predicted it could be mistake that “she’s not coming out harder” against the jet proposal, given how important the issue is to her base.
Chow has not yet announced whether she will take part in the Oct. 26 election, but is widely expected to run.
With files from Alyshah Hasham
