Toronto airport expansion plan won’t be released during consultations: port authority

Consultations on the future of the Toronto island airport will go ahead without detailed plans on a possible expansion.

At a tense annual general meeting today, officials with Toronto Port Authority say no expansion plan for Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport has been finalized or would be released before newly launched consultations end on July 24.

Vice-president Deborah Wilson says what the port authority has right now is a “vision for the airport that is inclusive of allowing modern aircraft.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he wants to expand the Billy Bishop airport to allow for jets and hopes to quintuple annual passenger traffic from around two million to 10 million.

The province passed legislation last month to take Toronto’s place in the airport’s governing agreement and to take over city-owned lands on the adjacent waterfront and the Toronto Islands.

A letter this week signed by several high-profile Torontonians and former mayors called on Ottawa to hold off on any changes until “detailed evidence-based long-term plan” is made public to address the “many essential unanswered questions”.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, who previously said Ford has an “interesting” vision for the airport with “big possibilities,” said this month he had yet to form an opinion on the plan and promised consultations, which opened this week.

Jordan Omstead, The Canadian Press