Standing on the balcony of her condo overlooking Billy Bishop airport, Bev Thorpe pauses to let the roar of a landing plane subside.
She is used to the blast of sound; she’s been living just under 500 metres from the runway since 2010.
“Nowhere else in the country do you have a community cheek to jowl, so close to an airport,” she said. “It’s very unique.”
This is the area that would be most affected by the Premier Doug Ford-backed proposal to expand the airport, which could involve more frequent flights, a significant increase in passengers, a runway extension farther into the lake and the introduction of jets, like the private one briefly purchased for the premier’s use.
A detailed plan is expected from the Toronto Port Authority “in the coming months,” and the province is expected to soon table legislation that would try to remove the city of Toronto’s role in governing the airport’s future. A recent poll found an even split among Torontonians on what should happen at the airport, but clear support for residents having a say in the decision.
What a busier Billy Bishop airport might look like
In the meantime, Thorpe, who is the chair of the Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association, has been trying to convey what a busier airport would mean for this long-established waterfront community, from noise to pollution to safety in the event of an emergency.
When the planes aren’t taking off or landing, she can hear the thud of basketballs and shrieks of children playing next to the elementary school and daycare in the local community centre. The 509 streetcar screeches to a halt at the Eireann Quay stop, picking up some of the passengers from the just-landed flight. Dogs bark as they are walked through Little Norway Park, where softball and cricket are played in the summer.
The park is bordered on one side by Windward Co-op, a home for people with disabilities that is the closest building to the airport, just 200 metres away. Next to it is a 108-unit Toronto Community Housing building, and the Arcadia artist co-op where Joan Prowse has lived since 1989.
The “peaceful, tiny” airport she moved in next to bears little resemblance to what is there today, Prowse said.
Since Porter Airlines began operations there in 2006, annual passenger numbers had increased from 26,000 a year to two million in 2025. In a recent press conference, Ford said he envisions that number reaching 10 million.
“We’re not saying we don’t want an airport,” said Prowse, who has fought against allowing jets in the past. “But it keeps growing and growing and growing.”
She and Thorpe say the neighbourhood association is worried about increased noise and worse air quality, not just for the residents of Bathurst Quay but anyone visiting the bustling waterfront, the de facto backyard for thousands of downtown tower-dwellers.
On weekends, the roads around and leading into the airport terminal are a “sea of red lights,” Thorpe said, a combination of the airport traffic and downtown events, from Jays games to waterfront festivals.
Residents concerned over increased traffic
In February, the city began a transportation study on the neighbourhood in response to resident concerns about traffic and safety that predate the discussion of airport expansion. Local councillor Ausma Malik will ask council this week to get a preliminary assessment by early summer, alongside a report on the potential impact on planned housing in the Port Lands.
When a major airport expansion was last studied in 2014, consultation reports concluded the increase in airport passengers would require changes to roads and transit. Possible solutions included an underground streetcar loop at the airport terminal with a link to the pedestrian tunnel, extending the pedestrian tunnel underground to the current streetcar stop, building an underpass or extending Dan Leckie Way south by filling in some of the harbour.
Much of the land in the area around the airport terminal is owned by the city, but the city’s role in deciding the future of the airport is unclear. Currently, the airport is governed through a tripartite agreement between the federal government, the federally mandated Toronto Port Authority and the city. Ford has said the province will take over the city’s share of the airport land and place in the agreement.
City’s legal options unclear
A confidential memo to council from the city solicitor obtained by the Star says the city’s legal options are hard to assess without seeing the provincial legislation, but there could be a way to challenge the province replacing the city in the tripartite agreement or designating the airport and other waterfront lands as a special economic zone.
It is unlikely, however, that the city could oppose the province expropriating or otherwise seizing city-owned airport or waterfront lands. The only arguable issue would be whether compensation is fair, the memo says.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has called the idea an “interesting vision,” as local MPs stress public consultations will be held before a decision is made.
“I know it’s causing a lot of concern for residents; we are hearing that. But we are also hearing people who are excited about what a growth trajectory for the airport could look like,” said Chi Nguyen, the Liberal MP for Spadina-Harbourfront, in a recent interview. “I think there are a lot of good open questions … we need it to work for everybody.”
Perhaps Thorpe’s favourite spot in her neighbourhood is the Toronto Music Garden, a park along the harbour where summer concerts in a small grassy amphitheatre go on, even with the intermittent interruption of the planes. It still feels like a hidden gem, though the area gets busier every year, with new attractions such as the restored Canada Malting Silos that now function as an art installation space run by Ontario College of Art & Design University, and The Corleck, an Irish cultural centre with a rooftop patio opening this summer.
“Toronto owes itself to have a full public consultation about potentially changing what is going on here,” she said. “Are we going to choose people or planes?”
