Ontario’s premier has made no secret of the fact that he wants a much bigger Billy Bishop Airport on Toronto’s waterfront. Doug Ford thinks bigger jets serving, in particular, the nearby business district, would be an economic boon for the province’s capital city. And he’s got lots of company urging him on, such as the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
For most of her mayoralty, Olivia Chow has kept her criticism of the premier muted. But she’s made an exception with Ford’s airport expansion plans. Last week, she held a news conference urging the public to rise up against the provincial government’s unilateral (but legal) attempts to expropriate city land for an expanded airport.
But there’s a third partner in the triumvirate that has responsibility for what’s happening on Toronto’s waterfront: the federal government. What do they have to say about Ford’s plans to expand the airport?
At the moment, crickets. The most we’ve gotten is boilerplate statements from the office of Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon — and that was only after journalists asked specifically about the issue. To my request, the minister’s office said that “any future decisions concerning the operating environment of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport will require the consensus of all signatories to the Tripartite Agreement.”
Regardless of where you stand on this, you have to admit it’s passing strange that Mark Carney’s Liberal government, which currently holds 23 of Toronto’s 24 federal seats, hasn’t uttered a peep.
(After publication, Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal MP for Davenport, reached out to note that she has been willing to discuss this file with media.)
The federal environment minister is Julie Dabrusin, whose riding, Toronto—Danforth, is bordered by Lake Ontario. In fact, the airport is right next door. Dabrusin’s ministry would be responsible for doing due diligence on a potential airport expansion. After all, there would be environmental factors to consider if the runways were extended and the jet traffic increased. But so far, there’s been no word publicly on whether the minister intends to do that due diligence that she is entitled to do — maybe even obliged to do.
Greg Sorbara is a former Ontario Liberal finance minister and president of the provincial party. He’s been in or involved in politics at all levels for almost half a century. He wrote Dabrusin a letter urging her to get active on this file, out of a concern that increased jet traffic “represents a serious degradation of the Toronto Islands and Toronto's waterfront.”
He told the minister he was “in awe that neither your government, nor you as Canada's environment minister, nor the Toronto Liberal caucus has expressed even a mild objection to [Premier] Ford's proposed expropriation of both municipal and federal authority over Billy Bishop. You have a clear line of authority on this matter.”
He went on to urge the minister to become a champion for the people who want to preserve the waterfront’s current benefits. “Personally, I am appalled by the collective silence of the Toronto Liberal caucus members on this matter,” he wrote, adding “the environmental damage [the expansion] will do should be a clarion call to action to you personally. I hope you will take up the challenge.”
Despite sending the note on April 5 — and being assured someone would respond within ten days — Sorbara says he has received no reply, apart from an automatic email response indicating his note did make it into the minister’s inbox.
I asked Dabrusin’s office about the airport, and about Sorbara’s note. The minister’s press secretary, Keean Nembhard, confirmed all three levels of government will eventually have to come to a consensus on future airport plans. “That partnership is at the heart of building the waterfront the city needs for the future,” he said, adding, “The federal government will continue working with all parties to ensure that strong standards for safety, environmental protection, noise, and community impact are upheld for any future proposals.”
The prime minister’s office seems similarly unengaged with the airport. Carney has the right to appoint seven of the nine members of the Toronto Port Authority’s board, and yet five of those positions currently remain unfilled.
So, what’s really going on here? Well, since no one is talking, we are left to offer up some informed speculation.
The prime minister prizes his relationship with Premier Ford. It seems if Ford wants the airport expansion, Carney (so far) seems inclined to let him have it, perhaps in the interest of staying on the premier’s good side.
Liberal backbenchers in the 416 know this as well, and are (so far) staying mute on the issue. Some are no doubt hoping that if they can remain on the PM’s “nice” list, they can still have a shot at a cabinet post. That’s just how these things tend to work.
There also seems to be an unusual confluence of people in the PMO and cabinet who seemingly know very little about Toronto. Carney himself is an Ottawa guy from Alberta and the North. Marc-André Blanchard, his chief of staff, is a Quebecer. So is Michael Sabia, secretary to the cabinet and the country’s top civil servant. Principal Secretary Tom Pitfield and senior adviser Scott Gilmore are also Ottawa guys.
Fourth, and perhaps most surprisingly, Ontario’s biggest homebuilders haven’t raised a stink even though they could stand to lose big time. Plans to build new homes on waterfront land would surely be dramatically curtailed if bigger jets were permitted at Billy Bishop.
So far, Ford’s agenda is carrying the day. The municipal government can’t stop him from doing what he wants. And the feds have shown no interest in asserting their rights to be involved, either. Moreover, Ford’s position got a boost this weekend from federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. When I asked him at a news conference not far from the airport for his view on the situation, the official opposition leader was unambiguous: “I am unequivocal. I'm for more flights, for more competition, for lower costs, for an expanded Billy Bishop Airport.”
Polls show a majority of Torontonians who live downtown oppose Ford’s plans. But the further away you go from the airport, and the closer you get to the city’s inner suburbs (like Ford’s home base of Etobicoke), the opposition dissipates.
The premier has already had one recent massive headache related to a jet. Will this be another aviation misstep? Or will federal Liberal silence on the issue be the premier’s political salvation?