City Council will vote at its meeting October 9 - 11, 2024 whether to adopt the recommendations in the September 27 Staff Report to adopt RESA 1, no more.
It should do so! In brief, here's why.
We are deeply concerned that airport industry lobbyists have been misrepresenting the position of community representatives.
Contrary to the conclusions of city staff's Report, Ports Toronto claims it can't afford to build RESA 1 without an extension of the Tripartite Agreement. That's not true.
The federal government requires that Toronto Island Airport build Runway End Safety Areas (RESAs) in less than three years - by July 14, 2027.
City staff in an exhaustive report dated September 27, 2024 recommended focussing on safety for now; build the simplest, least expensive option that keeps people safe, the so-called RESA 1 option. Otherwise Ports Toronto would miss the deadline.
Staff recommended that bigger questions about the airport and its future should be studied over the next few years with lots of public consultation. Executive Committee of Council adopted that staff recommendation on October 1.
But Ports Toronto and Nieuport have been lobbying Councillors for months to ignore the staff report, and expand the airport NOW in ways NOT related to safety.
They demand Council allow a much bigger airport NOW. Most of all, they demand an automatic extension of the Tripartite Agreement past its expiry in 2033 NOW - so the airport would exist and expand for an extra 40 years - without any public consultation or study.
The matter goes to City Council, in a vote this coming Wednesday, October 9, 2024.
Tell him or her Council should adopt the Staff Report and its recommendations when Council votes on October 9!
Torontonians should NOT vote away their right to have a say on the future of the island airport!
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Waterfront for All
https://www.waterfrontforall.ca/
The City should not agree to any amendment of the Tripartite Agreement in the current RESA process - except, at most, a narrowly-defined permission to do the minimum build-out needed to comply with the federal RESA regulations, nothing more. Much more information is required before even that is granted.
Council should on no account agree to any extension now of the 50 year Tripartite Agreement past its current expiry in 2033. Much further study is required before Council can make an informed decision on the long-term future of the airport. There’s no time to do that now.
The RESA Regulations, Ports Toronto’s delays and secretiveness. The federal regulations are described in the background materials. Some kind of RESA structure must be built by July 12, 2027. Ports Toronto has so far not told anyone what it wants to build.
Yet the regulations have been under discussion since 2010, when the Federal government first said it intended to go ahead with them. They were published in final form in 2021, three years ago. The City should not be rushed by Ports Toronto’s delay and procrastination.
The key underlying question: does it really make sense go through all this for a duplicative airport used by less than 5% of Toronto’s air travelers? Maybe it’s cheaper, easier, and less disruptive to consolidate airline operations at Pearson, 20 or so km away. Council should not agree to any RESA option without detailed drawings and information on what construction disruption, noise and pollution can be expected, and an environmental assessment. Council needs to be clear what it is voting on.
Ports Toronto has held only one public meeting to date, on July 17, 2024. It outlined very briefly what it called “options” for RESA compliance.
Meaningful consultations with the public, and an informed vote by Council, are essentially impossible at this time due to the lack of information from Ports Toronto.
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Passionate Torontonians throng airport RESA meeting
Hundreds came out to the City’s September 24 consultation on Runway End Safety Areas (RESAs) at the island airport on a rainy night. Federal regulations call for RESAS at the island airport, to be designed and built by July 2027 if the airport is to carry on. Ports Toronto says there are three options (RESA 1, 2 and 3) ranging in cost from $60 to almost $200 million, depending on how many taxiways, extra roads, tunnels etc are added. What if Ports Toronto can’t afford it? Maybe airport services would be consolidated at Pearson, which over 95% of Toronto air travellers already use anyway - served by the UP Express link. And you could have a park, housing or other cool stuff instead - which almost everyone at the meeting, it seems, would rather have.
Featured Speakers:
April Engelberg. April is a lawyer living in Spadina-Fort York and a proud Torontonian. She came in second place for Toronto City Council in Ward 10 in both the 2018 and 2022 elections. April has been advocating to make the Toronto Islands free and easy to access by building a 250 metre pedestrian cycling bridge over the Eastern Channel.
John Lorinc. John is a Toronto journalist and editor. He writes about cities, climate and business for Spacing Magazine, The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and Corporate Knights. John is also the author and co-editor of several books, including No Jews Live Here, a memoir which will be published by Coach House Books in November.
Join us on Tuesday, May 21, 7 pm (Zoom) for critical and constructive panel discussion on the plan for Villiers Island.
WfA has been broadly supportive of Waterfront Toronto's work over the years, but true friends owe their friends open and constructive dialogue. So inspired by recent discussions of the recently amemded Villiers Island plan, including critical assessment by the Globe & Mail's Alex Bozikovics and a commentary by architecture and planning firm Smart Density, we felt that it was urgent to give voice to legitimate and constructive concerns about the Villiers Island Plan prior to its consideration by City Council in June.
To that end we've put together a panel of community activists, housing activists and urban planners to take a second look at the Villiers Island plan.
FEATURING:
We had a fabulous evening on Tuesday, May 7 at Bathurst Quay, with our featured guest, Bryan Bowan, City of Toronto Program Manager for Bathurst Quay Common, and special guest, William Peat of the Canada Ireland Foundation. We were also very pleased to be joined by Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik.
The Canada Ireland Foundation is leading the development of The Corleck, a new centre for arts, culture and heritage that will be flanked by and the Bathurst Quay Common. Both are located beside Ireland Park, which the foundation spearheaded and fundraised for, in co-operation with the City of Toronto, the restored Canada Malting Silos.
Join us Waterfront for All on May 7th for a guided walkabout of the new City of Toronto led redevelopment of Bathurst Quay, with Bryan Bowen, Waterfront Project Manager, City Planning Division, Waterfront Secretariat.
FREE but Please click here to RSVP!
Join us at 7 pm on Tuesday, April 30 for a no holds barred discussion on the potential future of the Billy Bishop Island Airport Lands from the mid-2030s to the mid-2080s. The future of the Island Airport lands will be decided soon and Waterfront for All is committed to advocating for full and transparent public discussion and not backroom deals.
Featuring Sanford Borins - Professor Emeritus, Strategic Management, along with Watefront for All Board Members, Ed Hore, Ron Jenkins, and Brian Iler. Moderated by Edward Nixon.
City Council may have to decide within eighteen months. The waterfront is completely different from fifty years ago; does an airport on the island still make sense? A four-briefing note on where things stand.