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Island Airport

Island Airport

Island Airport Facts Emerge

by YQNA

A well-funded publicity campaign is underway to extend the life of the Island Airport beyond the end of its Tripartite Agreement in 2033. PortsToronto is operating the airport, which has leased the 210 acres of prime Waterfront land since 1983. Federal regulations now require major expansions into the harbour to renew the lease, so the pressure is on. The extended runways could cost a staggering $130 million and disrupt recreational use of the bay.

PortsToronto claims it is a successful business and essential to Toronto’s economy. Neither is true, according to experts in a new YouTube video from Parks not Planes. They document a steady decline in commercial flights from the Island Airport, with heavy financial losses year over year. This trend accelerated when Porter Airlines changed its business model away from the island and now flies mainly out of Pearson Airport. So far PortsToronto’s efforts to find other airlines have not succeeded.

The huge building and population spurt in Toronto’s downtown set the Island Airport in new perspective. The core is critically short of green space. If Toronto aspires to be a successful city, this has to change. The convenience of using the Island Airport rather than taking the UP Express from downtown to Pearson, should not supersede the needs of thousands of condo dwellers in search of public green spaces and recreation. 

Would New Yorkers prefer an airport to Central Park? If this question sounds preposterous, it is very much what Toronto’s City Council is facing now. Let the facts guide City Council to vote on the side of the general public and not for this business on the Waterfront. 

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Island AirportNoisePollution

That Flyby Noise

by YQNA
Noise exposure limits — the NEF — are drawn by Transport Canada with the aim of protecting citizens from excessive noise. The red contours on this map are from 1990, and the blue lines from 2008. The contours continued to vary slightly over the years, but problems persist.

The Waterfront is an attractive and wonderful place to live and visit. On the minus side it has frequent noise pollution, mainly due to planes taking off from the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, commonly known as the Island Airport. Landings are less loud, but departing planes that fly low past the condo towers, parks and Harbourfront Centre have a ruinous effect on the area, which functions as cottage country for much of Toronto.

As vacation travel has revved up at this airport after COVID, so have festivals and events attracting millions of visitors to the Waterfront and the Islands. They are next to the flightpath, and many locations suffer from debilitating noise, which might be much louder than federal regulations allow. But first the problem must be identified, and that process is ongoing in meetings that include YQNA’s expert Hal Beck. It should be simple to confirm, since noise can be measured by high-end equipment or even inexpensive phone apps. But Transport Canada in Ottawa has a 90-page book of regulations on the subject that baffle even its own staff. They only accept measurements from acoustical engineers. Their aim is to keep excessive noise inside a NEF (noise exposure forecast) contour around an airport and away from residents.

The Island Airport NEF contours were drawn in 1978, neatly avoiding all development lands. At that time the Waterfront was industrial with hardly any commercial air traffic or large aircraft. Jump to today, when the Waterfront is densely populated as part of the largest urban development in North America, and industrial uses have been replaced by high-rises and high-tech companies. This new world needs a new NEF contour that protects the Waterfront from noise.

Noise is not the only problem at this airport. It still operates with heavy financial losses, although it must be self-sustaining as part of Ports Toronto’s right to exist. To keep it going, the Feds funnel our tax dollars to the airport in various ways. It is promoted as essential for Toronto, but that is not the case since the UP Express Train to Pearson Airport opened in 2015.

Even if information and complaints from residents carry little weight in this noise debate, you can satisfy yourself by measuring sound on a phone app. When a plane approaches, check out whether it tops 70 decibels. Any noise exceeding 70 dB is considered disturbing, and above 85 dB can cause harm over time. Then you will have the answers directly from the aircraft engines to your ears. Waiting for the federal bureaucratic system to sort it out could take a long time. You can also lodge a noise complaint with the Island Airport.

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Island Airport

Park or Planes?

by YQNA

Imagine New Yorkers being asked if they want a city airport instead of Central Park. The answer would surely be no. Recently citizens in Chicago, Berlin, Edmonton and Santa Monica were facing that question – a small airport or a big park – and they all favoured parks over airports.

Now Toronto is facing the same question. We are critically short of parks and recreation, especially downtown. Losing the Rail Deck Park would make it worse. The Island Airport is stagnant and looking for investors, hoping to resume commercial flights. Its lease to use this publicly-owned land runs out in 12 years.

It is time to review Port Toronto’s industrial use of 215 acres of valuable land on our Waterfront. Does a city airport fit into Toronto, the fastest growing city in North America? Is it even needed, now that we have a 25-minute ride with UP Express from Union Station to Pearson Airport? Will a great recreational space by the lake serve future generations best and become an urban treasure like Central Park?

YQNA wanted to learn more about the options and invited Brian Iler of CommunityAir as our guest speaker. Feel free to share his illustrated presentation from our May meeting.

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ElectionIsland Airport

Our Team on the Hill

by YQNA

Photo: Adam Scotti

The seismic shift in Parliament brings us this cheerful team: Ange Valentini, chief of staff to MP Adam Vaughan (top right) and the new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. We congratulate them on the outcome of their successful campaign that brought them to the Waterfront many times. YQNA has always worked closely with our elected officials.  We are pleased that this new government already is committed to maintaining the tripartite agreement that governs the Island Airport. Not opening the agreement to negotiations allows the current airport operations, but will prevent massive jet expansion that would seriously threaten life on the Waterfront. Go team, go!

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environmentIsland AirportToronto Port Authority

Citizens Seek Independent Airport Studies

by YQNA

Flocks of geese at the Island Airport create danger of bird strikes, even worse if they are sucked into jet engines. (Photo: Ron Jenkins)

Flocks of geese at the Island Airport create danger of bird strikes, even worse if the geese are sucked into jet engines. (Photo: Ron Jenkins)

Numerous neighbourhood associations and community groups, including YQNA, have recently formed the Greater Waterfront Coalition. The Coalition has requested funding for independent experts and consultants to study certain issues arising out of the Porter Airlines proposal to expand the Island Airport to allow jets.

The request for funding and covering letter over the signature of lawyer Ed Hore (also YQNA’s new co-president), both dated December 8, 2014 can be seen here.

Jets require 200 metre extensions of the existing runway at both ends. The governing document, the Tripartite Agreement between the City of Toronto, The Toronto Port Authority and Transport Canada, however, does not permit jets, so Porter Airlines asked that the Agreement be amended. That requires the approval of City Council.

After some rushed studies and a staff report, Council passed a resolution in early April, 2014 requiring among other things that the Toronto Port Authority, owner and operator of the airport, conduct an Environmental Assessment of the effects of expanding the airport to allow jets. The City resolution also called for robust public consultation. Toronto Port Authority is now embarking on just such an Environmental Assessment, and wrestling with how to make it thorough enough to satisfy the City.

The Coalition formed because community groups shared concerns that they cannot provide real public input into the EA without their own independent experts and consultants. The issues are extremely complex. There is a widely-held concern that TPA experts and consultants will not represent or seriously consider the public interest, but rather will act as hired guns whose job is to make expansion of the airport happen.

If the Coalition receives funding to hire arm’s length experts and consultants, their mandate is to examine the complex issues from a public interest perspective. The request focuses on two areas seen as particularly in need of independent analysis: aeronautical safety, and the economic benefits and costs of expansion.

The aeronautic safety issues include: Will the Marine Exclusion Zone expand if the runway is extended? What are the effects of blasting jet engines near boats. What effect will aeronautical safety regulations have on new building development around the Harbour and in the Port Lands, and what would happen in an emergency? The economic questions include: Would jets at the Island Airport really bring travellers into Toronto, over and above those who would come anyway through Pearson? And what would be the economic cost of jets, for example, if they cause a reduction of tourism in the Waterfront, lower real estate values or restrict new Waterfront developments?

Representatives of the Coalition met with Toronto Port Authority on December 15, 2015, and we are waiting to hear if TPA will grant us intervener funding.

Ed Hore
Co-Chair of YQNA

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