FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 3, 2024
Re: Island airport and the City’s Lease
Two reports that would provide key information needed to make a good decision on the Island airport’s future are being withheld from the public.
We call on Ports Toronto and Nieuport Aviation to release the reports immediately.
The debate on the future of the Island Airport is incredibly rushed, as Ports Toronto (the operator of the Island Airport) and Nieuport Aviation (the owner of the Terminal) pressure City Council to quickly approve an extension to the City’s 50-year lease of a key portion of the Airport’s lands without any fulsome consideration of the many issues that an extension raises.
The lease expires in 2033. The City is paid no rent for its 20 acres.
Ports Toronto is refusing to publicly release its consultant’s report on the options available to comply with pending Runway End Safety Area requirements.
In response to our request, Ports Toronto CEO RJ Steenstra stated:
At the July 17th meeting, PortsToronto discussed six RESA options resulting from a comprehensive planning study conducted in 2023/24. The presentation delivered at the meeting, and subsequently posted to our project website, contains all of the relevant information [our emphasis] from the study and is the basis of all current and future studies.
What is relevant is, of course, not for Ports Toronto to decide.
Council, and the public, need to see the full report. Otherwise, we can only rely on an interested party’s view of what it thinks is relevant.
That’s not acceptable.
And Nieuport is refusing to release its report on the economic impact of the introduction of US Customs pre-clearance at the Island Airport. Its press release last May 30 included this:
“recent research by York Aviation indicates that Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport has the potential to deliver $5.3 billion in economic output through the increased aviation activity that Preclearance will bring about," said Neil Pakey, president and CEO, Nieuport Aviation, owner and operator of the passenger terminal at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.
But that research was not released to the public. We have asked and have not had the courtesy of a reply.
The original research was released in 2021, but the update citing that huge figure for economic benefit was not.
Both Ports Toronto and Nieuport argue the economic benefit of the Airport is so huge that the lease must be extended. Without that report, no one should take that number at face value.
The original report based its estimate on passenger volumes far in excess of reality: it predicts 4.5M passengers in 2023 – in reality, the Island airport had only 2M passengers in 2023, and its major user, Porter air is focussing it operations at Pearson, cutting back significantly on its Island Airport operations.
Contact Brian Iler
spokesperson, Parks not Planes
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