{"id":714170,"date":"2026-06-04T08:53:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T08:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/714170\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T08:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T08:53:16","slug":"toronto-liberal-mps-downplay-provincial-billy-bishop-expansion-plan-acknowledge-some-worries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/714170\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Liberal MPs downplay provincial Billy Bishop expansion plan, acknowledge some worries"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

A Porter passenger plane takes off from Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport on March 23.Cole Burston\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Liberal MPs hailing from the country\u2019s biggest city downplayed provincial plans to expand the Toronto island airport, following Premier Doug Ford\u2019s recent removal of impediments to realizing his goal. <\/p>\n

The Premier says he wants to allow jets to use the facility and supports a plan that would require creating nearly a kilometre of artificial peninsulas, jutting out into Lake Ontario, to lengthen the airport\u2019s main runway. The expansion, Ontario has said, could see Billy Bishop accommodate 10 million passengers a year, five times the current number.<\/p>\n

Late last week, Mr. Ford\u2019s government passed legislation to take over the city\u2019s role in governing the airport \u2013 against the wishes of the mayor and council. The province is also looking to designate the airport as a special economic zone, which would allow it to override regulations and provincial laws in order to fast-track construction. <\/p>\n

Any expansion would have to be approved by the federal government. It\u2019s estimated the project would cost up to $5-billion over 25 years. <\/p>\n

The proposal dominated the provincial legislature\u2019s spring sitting and has polarized the electorate, but Liberal MPs were cautious in their comments Wednesday outside their caucus room on Parliament Hill. The governing federal Liberal Party holds all but one of the seats in the provincial capital.<\/p>\n

Opinion: Doug Ford is right to expand Billy Bishop airport and bring it, and Toronto, to new heights<\/a><\/p>\n

The strongest concerns raised came from long-time MP Judy Sgro, who represents a district in northwest Toronto. She said she is \u201cabsolutely\u201d concerned that the airport could get too big and too busy and noted that traffic in the area is already \u201chorrendous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Provincial opposition parties have been outraged by Ontario\u2019s expansion plan, saying it will destroy the waterfront and ignores the democratic will of city residents. And some MPPs are taking their message to Ottawa next week.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, most of Ms. Sgro\u2019s colleagues from Toronto sought to underplay the proposed expansion or avoided disclosing their position by saying they need more information. <\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t seen a plan,\u201d MP Karim Bardeesy said repeatedly when asked by reporters for his opinion. He noted that Transport Canada has already mandated the runway\u2019s expansion for safety reasons, but that requirement is for a 150-metre safety zone and is separate from Mr. Ford\u2019s proposal. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounds pretty big to me,\u201d he ultimately conceded and acknowledged his constituents are worried. <\/p>\n

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

Toronto Liberal MP Karim Bardeesy rises in the House of Commons on May 1.Spencer Colby\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The notion that Ontario has not yet made a formal proposal was a talking point that MPs Vince Gasparro and James Maloney also leaned on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no proposed changes. The only change is the governance membership at Billy Bishop Airport,\u201d said Mr. Maloney. <\/p>\n

Mr. Gasparro said he wants to see a detailed business case and environmental protection plan before landing on a position. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2018m not going to light my hair on fire because someone posts something on Twitter. I want to see a concrete plan before I say I\u2019m going to support it or not,\u201d Mr. Gasparro said.<\/p>\n

The airport\u2019s governance changed last week when the province passed the Building Billy Bishop Airport Act, enabling the province to take over the city\u2019s former role in the tripartite agreement with the federal government and the federal Toronto Port Authority. The agreement currently restricts the airport\u2019s commercial carriers to turboprops. <\/p>\n

Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon avoided disclosing what Ottawa\u2019s position is on the proposed expansion, saying Wednesday, \u201cWe\u2019ll respectfully sit down and talk about the way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editorial: The trap of removing speed cameras<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Ford\u2019s office said Wednesday that once the province completes the expropriation of the airport land that was previously the city\u2019s, it will begin working with Ottawa and the Toronto Port Authority to advance the project. <\/p>\n

Mr. Ford has repeatedly talked about his vision for a larger Billy Bishop airport, calling it a \u201ccrown jewel\u201d in his plans for Toronto\u2019s waterfront, which include a refurbished Ontario Place and possibly a new convention centre on an artificial island.<\/p>\n

He has said the expansion will boost the economy. But critics have long warned that jets and millions more passengers a year at Billy Bishop would cause traffic chaos and spoil the waterfront\u2019s parks, trails, beaches and residential areas.<\/p>\n

A group of Ontario NDP MPPs will travel to Ottawa next week to press Liberal MPs and Prime Minister Mark Carney to oppose the expansion. Mr. Carney, who previously called it an \u201cinteresting vision,\u201d has not definitively given an opinion \u2013 although Mr. Ford has said the federal government is on board.<\/p>\n

NDP MPP Chris Glover, who represents a Toronto waterfront riding, told The Globe this week that he wants to hear a clear answer from the Prime Minister. He noted that the previous Liberal government in 2015 shut down a proposal from Porter Airlines to expand the airport over citizens\u2019 objections.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are furious about this,\u201d Mr. Glover said. \u201cThe waterfront \u2013 it\u2019s for everybody in Toronto. It is our waterfront, it is our playground.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A Porter passenger plane takes off from Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport on March…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,714,3302],"class_list":["post-714170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-politics","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714170","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=714170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}