Little Norway Park in Toronto, April 24. The province’s bill would also result in the expropriation of one-third of the city-owned park, which is on the mainland right across from Billy Bishop Airport.Duane Cole/The Globe and Mail
The Ontario government’s bill aimed at seizing the City of Toronto’s stake in Billy Bishop Airport – and overriding municipal objections to allowing jet traffic – appears to empower the province to potentially take over almost all the rest of the Toronto Islands.
But the provincial government says it only intends to take land needed to expand the island airport.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has been championing a push to lengthen the facility’s runways to accommodate jet traffic and handle as many as 10 million annual passengers, five times the current number.
On Thursday, Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria spoke to reporters after introducing proposed legislation meant to fulfill Mr. Ford’s vow last month to assume control of the city’s land at the airport.
The move is meant to remove the municipality from the tripartite agreement with the Toronto Port Authority (a federal agency) and Ottawa that has long governed the airport and bans jets.
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The province pointed out that some of the land to be seized included a third of the city’s Little Norway Park, which is on the mainland right across from the island terminal. (While Mr. Sarkaria said the land was needed because the airport was “an expansive project,” his spokeswoman, Dakota Brasier, later told reporters the park would remain a park.)
But the legislation also lists a series of properties by PIN, or property identification number, from which the minister could choose to expropriate land.
And Mr. Sarkaria never explained that these properties include a single, large parcel that covers almost all of the city-owned land on the Toronto Islands, including popular beaches and parkland.
Ms. Brasier said in a statement on Friday that not all the land identified would be expropriated: “This initial area captured is based on current PINs around the area needed to support the expansion of Billy Bishop Airport. We will work with the city to divide the relevant PINs to narrow the land required to only what’s needed as quickly as possible.”
A Porter passenger plane takes off from Billy Bishop Airport in Toronto on March 23.Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail
Porter Airlines and Air Canada currently only fly smaller turboprops from Billy Bishop, not jets, which are much larger and would require runway extensions of hundreds of metres jutting into Lake Ontario. Mr. Sarkaria could not say how long the runways needed to be. New 150-metre buffer zones must be added to both ends of the runway by next summer just to continue current operations.
The federal government must still approve the move to allow jets, an idea that has long been controversial for the potential impact on waterfront trails, parks, boaters and residential areas.
Toronto Port Authority President and CEO RJ Steenstra, left to right, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria and Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy arrive at an event at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport on Monday March 23, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank GunnFrank Gunn/The Canadian Press
In addition to his expropriation plans, Mr. Ford has pledged to use new powers to declare the area a “special economic zone” where any provincial or municipal laws could be suspended.
On Friday, Ontario’s Official Opposition NDP said the expropriation legislation’s potential inclusion of much of the Toronto Islands as an option was an alarm bell.
“This Premier seems to think this is just his little personal playground,” NDP Leader Marit Stiles told reporters at Queen’s Park.
At Little Norway Park, Spadina–Fort York MPP Chris Glover held up a map showing the boundaries of the expansive land parcel identified in the legislation.
“It’s another real estate scam, and it’s much bigger than we initially thought,” he said. “It’s potentially the entire Toronto Island.”
Mr. Glover and other NDP MPPs called for the federal government to block the expansion.
“The City of Toronto can be bullied, and they have been by the Ford government. But the Canadian government can do this,” said Toronto Centre MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam, a former city councillor. “Mark Carney can stop the Premier with one single phone call.”
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Mayor Olivia Chow, long a critic of allowing jets at Billy Bishop, also spoke to reporters on Friday morning at Little Norway Park, which she predicts will be turned into a parking lot for air travellers. She did not address concerns, which were raised moments later by NDP MPPs also at the park, over the potential expanse of the expropriations in the government’s bill.
Noting that no plan or details have been made public, she vowed to fight back. However, the city – which is mulling legal action – has little actual power at its disposal.
“Show us the plan. What is the plan? Has anyone been consulted? No,” she said. “Does the federal government know what’s going on? I doubt it.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office on Friday referred questions about the airport to federal Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon. At a news conference in Toronto last month, Mr. Carney called Mr. Ford’s expansion plan an “interesting vision” but stopped short of endorsing it publicly.
Marie-Justine Torres, a spokeswoman for Mr. MacKinnon, said changes at the airport required the consensus from the signatories of the tripartite agreement, and that Ottawa would work “to ensure that strong standards for safety, environmental protection, noise and community impact are upheld for any future proposals.”
Beverley Thorpe, the chair of the local Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association, said she doesn’t believe the expropriation on the mainland will be limited to a third of Little Norway Park, given the plans for a dramatic increase in airline passengers.
Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith, who represents the east Toronto riding of Beaches-East York, was highly critical of the provincial government’s airport takeover. Mr. Erskine-Smith is also eyeing the provincial Liberal leadership and is running to be the Ontario Liberal candidate in a yet-to-be-called by-election in Toronto’s Scarborough Southwest.
“Undemocratic, incompetent, out of touch, and another example of how everything Ford touches turns to chaos,” Mr. Erskine-Smith said in a statement.
With reports from Laura Stone