Liberal leadership contender Navdeep Bains now opposes Billy Bishop expansion

His move puts him in line with main Liberal leadership rival, MPP Lee Fairclough (Etobicoke-Lakeshore), who warned weeks ago that extending the runway to allow commuter jets was “a bad idea” because of the harm it would cause Toronto’s waterfront.

“I’ve been listening to people about Billy Bishop and the message is clear — residents have real concerns about noise and the environment,” Bains said on social media.

“Doug Ford’s ‘plan’ was slapped together without the community’s input. It’s unacceptable and I won’t support it,” added the former federal minister.

“With the consultations wrapping up this week, I want to be direct: any path to modernizing the airport needs to involve its surrounding communities,” he said.

“This Conservative government’s plan is a failure. Shaping the future of Toronto’s waterfront must be done collaboratively — but once again, this government just put its own interests first. Ontario deserves better.”

Both Ford and the Toronto Port Authority, the federal agency that owns and operates the island airport, back the expansion plan while Mayor Olivia Chow and NDP Leader Marit Stiles oppose the scheme.

The final decision will be up to Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose Liberals represent 23 of Toronto’s 24 federal ridings.

Carney maintains he has not “formed an opinion” on whether Billy Bishop should be enlarged and his online public consultation concludes this Friday.

When Star canvassed the candidates running the Nov. 21 provincial Liberal leadership contest for their views on the airport, Bains’s differences with Fairclough were the first point of contention in the race.

At the time, Bains said “it’s unfortunate that it was left to the federal government to initiate a consultation process that should have been the Ford government’s first step before any changes to the Toronto waterfront, including the airport.”

“I’ll wait for those results before drawing conclusions on expansion,” he said.

Fairclough had fired the initial salvo on the issue, saying “after consulting residents, businesses and planning experts, I concluded that the PC government’s fantasy project for the Toronto Islands and airport is a bad idea, with major risks and offering no clear benefits for Ontario.” 

“I voted against it in the legislature … because I don’t trust the premier and this PC government,” she said.

That was a reference to the June 2 fast-tracking by Ford’s Tories of the Building Billy Bishop Airport Act, which usurped the City of Toronto’s role in the tripartite agreement governing the airfield and seized adjacent municipal land.

Fairclough noted the premier has “not made a case for why downtown Toronto needs a massive expansion of Billy Bishop, or provided evidence of economic benefits.”

“The absence of a plan increases the risk that expansion will negatively affect residents of downtown Toronto and those along the proposed flight path. The uncertainty has already put a chill on housing development in the area that has been part of the revitalization plan for a thriving waterfront,” she said.

Two other leadership candidates, who are considered long shots, also expressed concern about the plan.

Dylan Marando, a former policy adviser to premier Kathleen Wynne and prime minister Justin Trudeau, said “laying a runway across the waterfront is a bad idea.”

“I’m not sure why any Ontario Liberal candidate would not be immediately opposed,” Marando said in an apparent criticism of Bains’s stance then.

Eric Lombardi, a financial technology engineer, said he’s “not prepared to support the Billy Bishop expansion the premier is pushing, because the province has not shown the public anything close to a credible plan.”