{"id":832751,"date":"2026-07-29T02:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T02:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/832751\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T02:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T02:52:09","slug":"ontario-accuses-ottawa-of-bowing-to-small-fringe-group-on-island-airport-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/832751\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario accuses Ottawa of bowing to \u2018small fringe group\u2019 on island airport expansion"},"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 Sarkaria and Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy arrive at an event at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport in March.Frank Gunn\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Ottawa bowed to a \u201csmall fringe group\u201d when it announced it would block the province\u2019s push for a massive expansion of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport to allow commercial jets, Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen the federal government here listen to a small fringe group in Toronto,\u201d Mr. Sarkaria told reporters at an unrelated announcement in St. Thomas, Ont. \u201cBut we as the province will continue to push forward on modernization of this airport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Late last Friday \u2013 the same day a federal online consultation on the idea had wrapped up \u2013 Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon issued a statement saying Ottawa would not proceed with the plan \u201cat this stage.\u201d Mr. MacKinnon said the government had received more than 87,000 responses, mostly from Torontonians. <\/p>\n

Federal government declines to allow jets at Billy Bishop \u2018at this stage\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

A federal source told The Globe last week that an overwhelming majority was against the expansion. The Globe did not identify the source, as they were not authorized to comment publicly on the matter. <\/p>\n

Opponents have argued that the proposal to allow jets at tiny Billy Bishop \u2013 and 10 million passengers a year, more than five times the current number \u2013 would spoil the Toronto Islands, harm the harbour and the rest of the city\u2019s waterfront and create traffic headaches. The issue has long been a flashpoint in local politics.<\/p>\n

However, Mr. Sarkaria said the province would continue to work with the Toronto Port Authority, the arm\u2019s-length federal agency that oversees the island airport, as the agency develops its expansion plan. He urged the federal government to reconsider.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also about building big projects,\u201d the minister said. \u201cYou know, if Prime Minister Carney and his team, if this is how they\u2019re going to treat bigger projects, I don\u2019t think you\u2019ll get much built.\u201d <\/p>\n

In addition, Mr. Sarkaria said that despite a demand from Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, Ontario would not repeal the legislation it passed earlier this year that expropriated the city, which opposes expansion, of its stake in the airport and its say over the airport\u2019s future. <\/p>\n

Toronto City Council is expected to vote this week on a resolution calling for the repeal of the bill. The legislation also gave the province sweeping discretion to choose to expropriate much of the rest of the Toronto Islands, as well as part of a city park on the mainland opposite the existing terminal.<\/p>\n

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said Tuesday that the law, known as Bill 110, should be ripped up. She took aim at Mr. Sarkaria\u2019s \u201cfringe group\u201d comment, saying it was a \u201cpathetic insult to the tens of thousands of people who fought back against this ridiculous project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rejection of Billy Bishop expansion prevents environmental destruction, advocates say<\/a><\/p>\n

The expansion to allow jets is separate from plans, already approved by the city, to allow the airport to add 150-metre safety buffer areas at each end of its main runway, as required by new Transport Canada rules. <\/p>\n

Long before Ottawa\u2019s announcement last week, both Premier Doug Ford and the Toronto Port Authority\u2019s president and chief executive officer, Roelof-Jan (RJ) Steenstra, had said the federal government supported allowing jets. <\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney had called the concept an \u201cinteresting vision\u201d in March. But by June, he said he had \u201cnot formed an opinion\u201d and pledged public consultations \u2013 after several of his Toronto Liberal MPs had issued cautious statements and received negative feedback from constituents. His narrow Liberal majority government faces a by-election in the waterfront riding of Beaches-East York next month.<\/p>\n

The Premier\u2019s move to expropriate the city\u2019s stake in the airport allowed the province to take Toronto\u2019s place in what is known as the tripartite agreement, a 43-year-old consensus deal between the city, the Toronto Port Authority and the federal government that governs Billy Bishop and currently bans jets. <\/p>\n

Mr. Ford had also vowed to use new powers his government has given itself to declare the airport a \u201cspecial economic zone\u201d where any provincial law or municipal bylaw could be suspended, in order to speed construction \u2013 although this authority has no effect on federal laws, which govern aviation. <\/p>\n

Commercial carriers Porter Airlines and Air Canada currently fly 78-seat turboprops out of the airport. Terminal owner Nieuport Aviation, which is controlled by J.P. Morgan Asset Management, had lobbied governments for an expansion. <\/p>\n

In an interview with The Globe in April, the port authority\u2019s Mr. Steenstra said a final plan would not be ready for months. He said the concept, which would allow for single-aisle 135-seat jets, entailed adding up to 600 metres to the facility\u2019s 1,218-metre main runway.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s in addition to the 300 metres of safety areas already required. In all, it could mean the creation of 900 metres in new artificial peninsulas off the island facility. Mr. Steenstra later told a legislative committee the price tag could be as much as $5-billion.<\/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":832752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,20739,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-832751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","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-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-ottawa","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","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\/832751","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=832751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}