City Council RESA vote coming

City Council will vote at its meeting October 9 - 11, 2024 whether to adopt the recommendations in the September 27 Staff Report .

It should do so! Here's our brief communication to Councillors as to why.

We believe and hope most Councillors will vote tomorrow to follow the Staff recommendations, adopted by Executive Committee, the Mayor and Councillor Ausma Malik: authorize the smallest, least intrusive option for Runway End Safety Areas, known as RESA 1, so as to deal with the pressing federal safety requirements now (RESAs must be built by July 14, 2027). As a separate matter, recommends Staff, take the time to study the bigger issues, such as whether the Tripartite Agreement, the airport land lease and operation agreement, should be extended in some form past its 2033 expiry, whether the airport should be expanded, including studies and public consultation exploring its adverse impacts and upsides, including we hope consideration and study of potential alternative uses of the land.

It would be a crazy leap for Councillors to do what Ports Toronto and Nieuport want: reject city staff‘s recommendations, meaning: extend the tripartite agreement for 40 years NOW, and authorize the airport to build the other, bigger RESA options - allowing a huge non-safety-related airport expansion immediately. Ports Toronto and Nieuport demand Council vote to agree to all this NOW without any study of the local impacts, ecological and health issues, transportation efficiency, economic effects or consequences on future development in the Portlands and elsewhere.

We are deeply concerned that airport industry lobbyists have been misrepresenting the position of community representatives.

Contrary to the findings in the Staff Report, Ports Toronto claims it needs an extension of the Tripartite Agreement because it otherwise can't afford to build RESA 1. That's not true.

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Here are some highlights:

“Reality Check” by Prominent Torontonians

Ken Greenberg, Margaret Atwood, former Ontario Premier Bob Rae, David Mirvish, former Mayors David Crombie and Art Eggleton, and other notable Torontonians are delivering a Reality Check to federal Liberal MPs. [https://torealitycheck.ca/]

This web site also includes a substantial report on the proposed BBTCA runway expansion [https://torealitycheck.ca/full-report.pdf] as well as a report summary: [https://torealitycheck.ca/executive-summary.pdf].

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Scarborough Bluffs West Project

The Scarborough Bluffs West Project is major initiative from the Toronto Region Conservation Authority and the City of Toronto on a key section of our waterfront. It follows the Scarborough Waterfront Project on the eastern section of the Bluffs (from Bluffers Beach to East Point Park), that is currently in its implementation phase.

The Scarborough Bluffs West Project Environmental Assent will explore enhancing and protecting the sensitive shoreline and the Bluffs from erosion, as well as opportunities for improved waterfront experience and trail access between the Eastern Beaches (Silver Birch Avenue) and Bluffer’s Park along Lake Ontario.

Visit the link for detailed consultation materials and to complete a survey on the project (deadline: June 30 2026).

HERE IS THE LINK TO HAVE YOUR SAY: https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/get-involved/public-consultations/infrastructure-projects/scarborough-bluffs-west-revitalization/

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Ed Hore comments on the jet proposal to Planning and Housing Committee, City Hall, June 11, 2026

City Staff submitted a report dated May 28, 2026 to the Planning and Housing Committee saying the latest jet proposal has huge implications for planning and housing in the fastest-growing areas of Toronto, yet the City has been given almost no information.

Ed Hore, Chair of WFA, commented at the June 11 Committee meeting that the Toronto Port Authorities' jet proposal is amateurish and vague, yet we know from TPA's long-secret Environmental Assessment of the 2013 - 2015 jets proposal that the effects on the waterfront will be huge. Toronto Port Authority never submitted detailed plans of that proposal to the regulator. Everyone had to guess at the effects for two and a half years. The federal government eventually realized the proposal was nonsense, and quashed it in 2015.

This time, the City should be the adult in the room; it must keep trying to determine the impacts of jets on the waterfront and the city. No other level of government seems to think the details matter.

Save the Date for "The Cost of Uncertainty - Jets at Billy Bishop" Speaker Series 24

Save the Date for Speaker Series 24 "The Costs of Uncertainty: BBCA Expansion Proposal" (you know that vague 'plan' for jets at YTZ!)

We are pleased to announce that Ken Greenberg will be joining us as a special guest speaker. Ken is an urban designer, teacher, writer, former Director of Urban Design and Architecture for the City of Toronto, Principal of Greenberg Consultants, and a Member of the Order of Canada.