Submission re Island Airport Runway End Safety Areas,
City Public Input Meeting, Enercare Centre, September 24, 2024
Executive Summary
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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In the third of our Waterfront Speaker Series, waterfront advocate and sailor Ron Jenkins speaks on the Toronto Island Airport and its alternative histories. In its years on the Island, the airport could have become many things. That transitional nature continues to this day. 