Issues - Toronto Island Airport

The Making of a Political Controversy:

For the last six years the expansion of the Toronto City Centre Airport (TCCA) has been the most intense political controversy in the city, and recent decisions by the federal government promise to keep it in the forefront of city politics for a long time to come.

Controversy surrounded the Island Airport even before it was built in 1938. Many city politicians of that day were opposed to the airport because of its location close to the centre of the city but after a long debate they lost the vote at City Council. The city’s amusement park at Hanlan’s Point was demolished, cottages were removed, sand and silt was dredged from the floor of the harbour and dumped on the western edges of the city’s largest and most loved park, and the airport was built. (The 220 acres of the airport are still zoned parkland.)

At the same time that the Island Airport was built another airport was constructed at Malton. It quickly became Toronto’s largest airport and the focal point for a large number of aircraft industries. We know the Malton Airport as Pearson, the largest airport in the country.

For a brief time during the Second World War the Island Airport was used for training by the Royal Norwegian Airforce. Even though there was strong support for the war effort, the noise from the aircraft was so loud, and protests so insistent, that the Norwegians moved their training facility to Muskoka. After the war the Island airport became the centre for small aircraft, a flying school and some commercial flights.

The Tripartite Agreement:

In the early 1980s there was considerable opposition to commercial flights out of the Island Airport because of pollution, noise, safety and concerns that a busy airport might negatively affect the efforts to rejuvenate the Waterfront. As a result the Tripartite Agreement was signed in 1983 between the city, the Toronto Harbour Commission and the federal government setting rules for the commercial operations at the airport. The agreement forbad the use of jets and stated that there must be no fixed link (bridge or tunnel) to the mainland.

The Tripartite Agreement also set firm noise parameters and stipulated that commercial aircraft using the Island Airport must be able to achieve STOL (Short Take-off and Landing) capabilities, the ability of the plane to take off or land at a 6 degree angle. The commercial airlines using the airport at that time used Bombardier’s Dash 7 planes, a four engine aircraft that had STOL capabilities.

After the Tripartite Agreement was signed commercial traffic continued at the Island. The most successful company was City Express, a discount service with flights to Montreal, Ottawa, and Newark, New Jersey. At their peak City Express was flying about 400,000 passengers a year, but by the mid 1980s the number of passengers decreased. The company stopped service in the late 1980s.

Through the 1990s the Island Airport limped along. Pilot training schools using small aircraft operated out of the airport, medivac services were instituted and Air Ontario operated a limited number of flights to Montreal, Ottawa, and London, Ontario. The most important changes were happening on the mainland.

The long held dream of many Torontonians has been the rejuvenation of the Waterfront. The cultural centre called Harbourfront was established in 1972. The Bathurst Quay neighbourhood was developed in the early 1970s, and the Harbour Square condos and the Harbour Castle Hotel were built in the late 1970s. It took time but the momentum was gathering to transform Toronto’s Waterfront into a major live-work community.

Meanwhile the airport languished and became almost irrelevant. Through the 1990s it was assumed by many people that the airport would simply pass out of existence because there was limited demand for its services. Why keep as a small regional airport when it contributed little to the city’s economy, created significant amounts of air pollution and represented a safety hazard? The added argument was that the land was very valuable and could make a significant contribution to the revitalization of the Waterfront.

When the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation (now called Waterfront Toronto) was established in the fall of 2001 it was hoped that they would soon move to close the airport. Unfortunately the terms of reference of the corporation deemed the Island Airport as outside their jurisdiction. It is now apparent that this was no accident. Powerful forces within the federal government wanted the airport to expand.

Toronto Port Authority:

In the late 1990s the federal government decided to revise the way it managed ports in Canada and proposed a new Canada Marine Act. Toronto did not meet the requirements of a port as spelled out in the act, and it was expected that the port and the Island Airport would be turned over to the City of Toronto, but at the last minute then Members of Parliament, Dennis Mills and Tony Ianno, intervened and got Toronto added to the list. There were cries of outrage by members of City Council but on June 8, 1999 the Toronto Port Authority (TPA) was born and the Toronto Harbour Commission, controlled by city appointees, disappeared. The TPA is administered by a seven member board, five of whom are federal appointees. Control of the Island Airport and the city’s port had shifted to the federal government. (See http://www.torontoport.com )

One of the first things the TPA did was commission a report on the Island Airport by Sypher Mueller, a consulting firm that worked for the airline industry. They published their report in January 2002. Sypher Mueller concluded that the airport could not continue at its present level of operations because it was losing substantial amounts of money. The airport either had to expand or close. They went on to recommend that the airport should expand but added that the only way that expansion would be successful was if a fixed link was built to the airport across the Western Gap. The TPA accepted the report and the board voted in favour of airport expansion.

Quickly another important player, Robert Deluce, joined forces with the TPA. Deluce and his family have long been involved in the airline industry. He was one of the founders of Air Ontario, which was sold to Air Canada and became the basis of Air Canada Jazz, and he was later involved with Canada 3000, a discount airline that went out of business in November 2001. Deluce said that he would like to start an airline operating out of the Island Airport using Bombardier Q400 aircraft.

The TPA agreed with the Sypher Mueller report that they must have a bridge across the Western Gap. Robert Deluce concurred, saying that a bridge was essential if his airline was to be a success. Originally Deluce promised to build the bridge himself, but he later withdrew that promise and the TPA agreed to build it.

CommunityAIR:

At about the same time as all of this was happening another group, CommunityAIR, (CAIR) was being formed. CAIR, a volunteer group of citizens who opposed airport expansion, began to research the impact of an expanded airport on the surrounding community. The group soon became one of the largest and most successful community groups that the city has ever seen.

Marc Brien, one of the leading members of CAIR, once made the comment that CommunityAIR agreed with the statement in the Sypher Mueller report that the airport cannot stay the same; it must either expand or close. The TPA opted for expansion, and CAIR argued that the airport should close.

The central approach of CommunityAIR has been to research and publicize the impact of an expanded airport on the Waterfront communities and the city. The group did extensive research showing that an expanded airport would lead to increases in air, water and noise pollution. They argued property values would fall and an expanded airport would harm the redevelopment of the Waterfront. They showed safety issues were a special concern at the Island Airport because of its short runways and encroaching high rise development. CAIR did research on the airline industry, turboprop aircraft and the impact of increased traffic on the surrounding community. The group mounted a legal challenge to the TPA environmental assessment approving the airport expansion on the basis that it did not look at the impact of the airport expansion on the community. The research and public campaign the group mounted was very comprehensive. (See www.communityair.org )

The Bridge to TCCA:

The first major controversy involving the TPA occurred in 2002. The city and the Port Authority had been involved in litigation over the transfer of land from the Toronto Harbour Commission to the city. Mel Lastman and his group brought forward a settlement to City Council that would cost the city $48 million to resolve the litigation. Attached to this, although it has never been revealed, was the promise on behalf of Lastman to facilitate the expansion of the Island Airport. CommunityAIR led the protests against airport expansion but lost the vote in the Lastman dominated council.

As the 2003 Toronto municipal election loomed it was apparent the city was polarized on the issue of airport expansion and the building of the bridge. A Toronto Star poll in the election showed that 60% of the people of Toronto were opposed to Island Airport expansion. There were five major candidates for mayor. David Miller was the only one to say that he was opposed to Island Airport expansion and the construction of the bridge. This issue helped to vault Miller over the other candidates and in November 2003 he was elected mayor. But airport expansion did not just affect the mayoral race. Every councillor elected in 2003 along the Waterfront from Etobicoke to Scarborough was opposed to airport expansion.

The cancellation of the bridge became the first political test of Miller and CommunityAIR. In December 2003 the issue came before council and after a heated debate the bridge was clearly rejected.

The $35 million settlement:

This put the TPA in a difficult position. Council had rejected the bridge and Prime Minister Paul Martin said that he would honour the wishes of the people of Toronto.

Shortly afterwards the federal government issued an Order in Council forbidding a fixed link to the Island Airport. The problem for the TPA was that they had signed binding agreements with the construction company to build the bridge despite the fact that they did not have all of the approvals. Apparently other agreements with Robert Deluce also made them legally vulnerable. (The full legal liability of the federal government was never revealed because the relevant agreements were never made public.)

Again the issue disappeared from sight and again it seemed like it would be only a matter of time before the Island Airport would have to close but again things were going on in the backrooms that would tell a different story. In May 2005 it was revealed that the federal government had given $35 million to settle legal claims around the cancellation of the bridge. People in Toronto were outraged. As John Barber, the Globe and Mail columnist, expressed it, how could it cost $35 million to cancel a bridge that was estimated to cost only $22 million and was never built?

This controversy grew from a focus on the expansion of the airport to an attack on the very viability of the Toronto Port Authority. CommunityAIR, Mayor Miller and even the Toronto Star advocated that the federal government should disband the TPA and turn its assets and responsibilities over to the city.

It has never been revealed what happened to the $35 million. All we know for sure is that $11 million appears on the books of the TPA. The rumour is that $9 million was given to Deluce to settle his claim and the rest was divided up between the construction company and other interests. According to the Canada Marine Act, that governs the Toronto Port Authority, the federal government is not to give subsidies to a port authority, and yet the $11 million has all the earmarks of a subsidy to bail TPA out of a difficult position and to help them to expand the airport.

The Ferry Boat Airport Expansion:

It soon became clear that despite the cancellation of the bridge, and the opposition to airport expansion by the Mayor and members of City Council, the TPA intended to expand the Island Airport anyway. At their Annual Meeting in the summer of 2005 the TPA announced that they were going to build a new ferry and were planning improvements to the passenger facilities. Altogether the Port Authority said they intended to spend $15 million with the prospect of more spending to come in the future.

On February 1, 2006 Robert Deluce confirmed all of the rumours that were swirling about the airport. In a flashy press conference at Bombardier’s Downsview facility he announced that he had placed an order for ten Q400 planes and would start service to cities within a 1500 kilometer radius of the Island Airport by the summer. His new airline was to be called Porter Air. The initial number of passengers was estimated at 600,000 a year and this was to be ramped up to 1.2 million. The expansion scheme calls for a 3,000% increase in passenger volumes.

CommunityAIR researchers went into action. They pointed out that the Q400 is a much bigger plane than the Dash 8 used by Jazz. The runways at the Island Airport were very short and did not meet the manufacturer’s specifications for the length of runways needed for the Q400. Robert Deluce countered by saying that he would fly the planes with only 70 passengers, and the reduced weight would allow the aircraft to meet the safety requirements. CommunityAIR pointed out that the Q400 could never meet the STOL requirement of a 6% angle on take off and landing. The best that the Q400 could achieve was 5.5%.

Mayor Miller entered the fray by saying that he was not opposed to Robert Deluce trying to establish a new airline, but it should operate out of Pearson not the Island Airport. This is a telling critique. Pearson now has 26 million passengers a year and can handle over 50 million. Over the last five years there have been investments of $4 billion at Pearson and plans are in the works to build a rail link from the downtown to the airport.

None of these attacks made any difference. Deluce wanted to be at the Island Airport, not Pearson. The issue of STOL was simply ignored. Transport Canada, the regulatory agency, claimed that the Q400 was a modified Dash 8, even though it is much larger, 50% heavier and able to carry seventy passengers.

It was no accident that this announcement came just after the January 23, 2006 federal election. During the election members of CommunityAIR were intent on getting the federal parties to declare what they would do with the Island Airport. The NDP candidates clearly announced they would close the airport; the Liberal candidates along the Waterfront claimed they were not in favour of airport expansion. Even Tony Ianno made this claim despite the fact that he admitted playing a role in getting the $35 million for the TPA. The Conservative Party candidates, following the promises of their leader, Stephen Harper, said that they believed that local issues like the Island Airport should be dealt with by local people.

The Review that Never Happened:

When the new Conservative government took office they sent out signals that they may reexamine the decision to expand the Island Airport. Mayor David Miller talked extensively with Lawrence Cannon, the new Minister of Transportation. Letters were written to the Prime Minister. Olivia Chow, the newly elected Member of Parliament for the riding that included the Island Airport, lobbied everyone in Ottawa.

While all of this was going on another issue emerged during the winter and spring of 2006. Robert Deluce had become of the principle tenant at the Island Airport. He had bought three hangers and was doing renovations on them. Air Canada Jazz was continuing to do limited flights out of the TCCA to Ottawa using Dash 8 aircraft. Suddenly on February 15 the TPA cancelled this service and evicted Jazz from the airport. Jazz management was furious and they launched a legal suit against the TPA but little has come of it. A question, however, was posed by Mayor Miller and others: was the TPA, giving a monopoly of a publicly owned facility to Robert Deluce and his airline, Porter Air?

For a time it appeared that the Conservatives just might move to stop airport expansion. Roger Tassé was appointed by the Minister of Transport to examine the decisions of the Toronto Port Authority and make recommendations to the minister. Members of community groups met with Tassé. CommunityAIR submitted a 100 page brief with 500 pages of references. Hopes were high that this time the Port Authority would be dissolved, its assets and responsibilities given to the city and in time the Airport would be wound down.

But on August 25, 2006 all of these hopes were dashed. Lawrence Cannon, the Minister of Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities, announced that five new members of the Toronto Port Authority had been appointed. These new board members have either close ties to the Conservative Party or the airline business. In this backhanded way the Conservatives were announcing their support of the expansion of the airport. Deluce and the Port Authority had prevailed.

Expansion of the Island Airport:

David Miller had won election as mayor in the 2003 election on the promise of “No Island Airport Expansion,” the majority of the members of Toronto City Council voted against the bridge to the airport, at least 60% of the people of Toronto expressed opposition to the expansion of the airport, and the residents along the Waterfront were overwhelmingly opposed to an expanded airport in their neighbourhood and yet the federal government used its power to override all of these concerns and impose the airport.

In October 2006 Porter Airlines took delivery of four Q400 aircraft and began service to Ottawa and Montreal. Today, November 2008, two years later Porter has twelve aircraft and has links to Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, Newark, N.J. and Chicago. His aircraft are flying somewhere around 40% capacity on average. Not only do the planes dump additional air pollution on the heavily polluted central core of the city, they are a serious safety hazard. Noise from the planes disrupts the neighbourhood every time one of the planes takes off or lands. Taxis and private cars tear through the neighbourhood delivering or picking up passengers. In fact the impact of the expanded airport is worse than its critics predicted. It is making the Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood and much of the Waterfront intolerable.

CommunityAIR has mounted a fight to enforce the terms of the Tripartite Agreement. The Q400 is not a STOL aircraft and it violates the allowable noise contour limits. Porter Air is even violating the airport’s 11 pm curfew on a regular basis. But all of this is simply ignored.

Mayor David Miller has done nothing to stop the Island Airport expansion except the cancelation of the bridge. The city has made no effort to enforce the terms of the Tripartite Agreement and CommunityAIR is powerless to enforce them because the community group is not a signatory to the agreement. The city, it is rumoured, is waiting for Porter Airlines to go bankrupt but there are no signs of that.

The Important Lessons:

The story of the Island Airport expansion tells us a great deal about Toronto and its politics. These are some things to consider.

• Despite repeated demonstrations that the people of Toronto do not support Island Airport expansion, a small group of people who support airport expansion got their way. If the people cannot shape decisions through public opinion and the ballot box then it does not speak well for democracy.
• Experts on pollution and city planning have been totally ignored in this process. The Island Airport is within two kilometers of the centre of the largest city in Canada. The aircraft cause serious levels of air pollution. Safety concerns have been ignored. The noise levels of the Q400 are above the allowable limits and the aircraft cannot meet the STOL requirement in the Tripartite Agreement. Traffic streams through residential communities with thousands of people and hundreds of children. Property values are threatened. And perhaps most important of all, the promise of a clean green Waterfront is now in jeopardy. And why? The political elite have chosen to turn over this public facility to a small group of people so they can make profit.
• The government’s own policies have been ignored. The Toronto Port Authority was to be financially self sufficient but they have never come close to self sufficiency. Since the Toronto Port Authority was established in 1999, it has cost taxpayers an incredible $165 million in legal settlements, subsidies and unpaid taxes.
• The real story of the Island Airport is how a small group of vested interests have used their political power to convert publically owned facilities to their private gain at the expense of the public.