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OTTAWA — The province’s plans to expand Billy Bishop airport are hitting some high-profile turbulence.
On Wednesday, a letter signed by more than 20 prominent Torontonians was sent to the federal government expressing concerns about the planned expansion and provincial takeover of the city’s long-standing island airport — calling the proposal an irreversible blight on Toronto’s waterfront.
“Our city’s Inner Harbour is truly a crown jewel, one of our greatest civic achievements,” reads an excerpt from the letter, addressed to Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“Large infrastructure decisions shape cities for generations. Once major physical urban transformations occur on the Inner Harbour, they will be impossible to reverse.”
Plans include runway expansions, provincial takeover of YTZ
Plans put forward by Queen’s Park include taking over operation of the airport from the city, declaring the island airport a “special economic zone” that would allow legislators to bypass municipal bylaws and zoning restrictions, and extending runways to permit small commercial jets such as the Embraer E195 and Airbus A220 to use the currently propeller-only aerodrome.
The federal government, says the letter signed by author Margaret Atwood, former Toronto mayors Art Eggleton and David Crombie, former Ontario Premier Bob Rae and Olympian Hayley Wickenheiser, has a duty to protect both the city’s harbourfront and the island airport until a full and proper review of the project’s impacts is carried out.
The province is pitching the plan as a $140-million economic boost for Toronto that would help ease pressure on overcrowded Toronto Pearson, but critics are calling the move undemocratic.
“We call upon your government to support full disclosure, to hold open, fully informed and unbiased public hearings on any such plan, including the trade-offs, size of expected infrastructure, land requirements, cost-benefits, timelines, and the public uses to be sacrificed,” the letter reads.
“The indisputable common goal must be determining collectively what is best for our city, its citizens and their future.”