Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles is urging Prime Minister Mark Carney to thwart Premier Doug Ford’s “callous land grab” of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.
Carney has expressed an interest in Ford’s plan to allow jets at the island airport, calling the proposed expansion “a very interesting vision” with “big possibilities there.” The Toronto Port Authority, the federal agency that owns and operates Billy Bishop, backs the plan.
While the premier is usurping the City of Toronto’s role at Billy Bishop with new legislation opposed by Mayor Olivia Chow, Ottawa still retains most of the power in the tripartite agreement governing the airfield.
“The fight to save the Toronto Islands will define the future of our province and this city. Will you stop this callous land grab?” Stiles wrote in a letter Friday to Carney.
At a news conference in Harbour Square Park on the waterfront, Stiles said she was “speaking for the people of this city” who oppose extending the runway at Billy Bishop some 600 metres into the lake.
“We have been hearing from thousands and thousands of people and I suggest that his MPs in the GTA are hearing from them. The people do not want this. The prime minister does need to step in,” she said.
Although Ford’s airport scheme is unpopular with the provincial opposition and with city council, the issue has had no apparent political impact for the governing federal party.
Carney’s Liberals won two Toronto byelections on April 13, including University—Rosedale, a downtown riding just 1.5 kilometres from Billy Bishop. Dr. Danielle Martin received 64.3 per cent of the vote. New Democrat Serena Purdy was second with 18.9 per cent.
The Liberals also won Scarborough Southwest, which is on the airport’s eastern flight path, with Doly Begum winning 69.6 per cent of the vote while the NDP’s Fatima Shaban, who is running for Stiles’s party in an upcoming byelection in the same riding, was third with 5.9 per cent.
Asked about Stiles’s letter, Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon’s office said “any future decisions concerning the operating environment of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport will require the consensus of all signatories to the tripartite agreement, the lease agreement that governs the operations of the airport.”
“The federal government will continue working with all parties to ensure that strong standards for safety, environmental protection, noise and community impact are upheld for any future proposals,” MacKinnon’s office said in a statement.
Ford, citing polls showing the airport expansion is popular, has said he and Carney “came to the consensus” Billy Bishop is an important regional economic driver.
Last week, his majority Progressive Conservative government tabled the “Building Billy Bishop Airport Act,” formalizing the province’s seizure of the city’s responsibilities in the tripartite agreement.
The 13-page legislation takes ownership of city-owned lands at the airport in exchange for “fair compensation.”
Although city council passed a series of motions opposing the plan, the municipality is a creature of the province so such moves are largely symbolic.
