{"id":555716,"date":"2026-03-23T17:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T17:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/555716\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T17:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T17:27:09","slug":"ford-to-declare-billy-bishop-airport-a-special-economic-zone-to-allow-jets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/555716\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford to declare Billy Bishop Airport a \u2018special economic zone\u2019 to allow jets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

From left: Toronto Port Authority president and CEO RJ Steenstra, 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.Frank Gunn\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Doug Ford<\/a> says he will use new legislation passed last year to declare Billy Bishop Airport in Toronto a \u201cspecial economic zone,\u201d allowing the government to circumvent provincial and municipal laws to extend the island facility\u2019s runway to allow jets.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ford has already said he would expropriate the city\u2019s interest in the island airport in order to get around Mayor Olivia Chow\u2019s opposition to expanding the facility and allowing jets instead of the current turboprops. The Premier said the legislation to do this was coming soon.<\/p>\n

But on Monday, at an event in a hangar at the airport, he announced that he would also use legislation passed last year, and known as Bill 5, to label the airport a \u201cspecial economic zone.\u201d This would allow the government to exempt the project, which involves extending the runway hundreds of metres at its ends, from any provincial environmental and other rules, as well as any city hall approvals. <\/p>\n

Mr. Ford said the move would streamline approvals \u2013 and would be done after consultations with First Nations.<\/p>\n

Ford confirms plan to seize land from Toronto to expand Billy Bishop Airport<\/a><\/p>\n

Critics have called Bill 5 an antidemocratic overreach. First Nations, who said they were not consulted, had warned of protests if the Premier used it, as previously pledged, to speed up mining in the northern Ring of Fire region.<\/p>\n

The legislation would not circumvent any federal legislation for the project. Federal Transportation Minister Steven MacKinnon has said his government was considering the project to allow jets. Mr. Ford\u2019s move to expropriate the city\u2019s interest in the airport would allow the province to take over the city\u2019s position in the tripartite agreement with the Toronto Port Authority, a federal agency, and the federal government, an agreement that determines the facility\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

The city had recently agreed to extend the deal to 2045 and add safety buffer zones to the runways, as required by Transport Canada, to allow the current fleet of turboprops operated by Porter Airlines and Air Canada to continue use the airport. Jets would require a much larger extension of the runway at each end into Lake Ontario.<\/p>\n

Opponents of jets warn they will disrupt the use of the parks and beaches on the islands and along the waterfront. Mr. Ford has said the jets would be quiet \u2013 but has not said how many more flights or passengers he wants at the airport.<\/p>\n

Opinion: Doug Ford\u2019s obsession to expand downtown Toronto airport would be economic vandalism<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Ford told reporters he had the federal government\u2019s support for his plans. No minister from Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s government attended Monday\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ford said the airport expansion was necessary for economic growth and would allow it to better compete with the much larger Pearson International Airport northwest of the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy expanding Billy Bishop, we can put Toronto on par with global cities like London, Chicago, New York or Paris, all of which have at least two major airports,\u201d the Premier said.<\/p>\n

Questioned by reporters, he said his government would take environmental concerns into account \u2013 but would not \u201cdilly-dally\u201d on accelerating the port authority\u2019s plans to expand the runway, which involves using fill. <\/p>\n

\u201cLast time I checked out there, that\u2019s a pretty big lake,\u201d Mr. Ford said, addressing a question about environmental impacts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: From left: Toronto Port Authority president and CEO RJ Steenstra, Ontario Premier Doug…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,43,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,41,39,42,40,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-555716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}