Pierre Poilievre says he would allow jets to fly in and out of Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport if elected

Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre says that if elected prime minister he would make changes to Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport to allow jets to fly in and out of the downtown core.

The MP from Ottawa said his government would “remove gatekeepers and open the skies to competition” by approving a proposal to extend the runway at the waterfront airport by reopening the Tripartite Agreement with Ports Toronto and the city, ultimately allowing jets to operate at Billy Bishop.

“The original proposal was to have quiet jets that have low volume that would land here on an extended runway safely in the heart of the business district,” Poilievre said at Billy Bishop airport on Thursday morning. “There was no real safety opposition. The real opposition was from people who just don’t want more planes next to an airport, but that’s what airports are for, to bring in air travellers.”

He argued that allowing jets at the waterfront airport would not only increase competition, but also shorten commute time, reduce gridlock, create 2,000 jobs and accumulate about $55 million in tax revenue.

“Look at Pearson. It’s a zoo over there. Why don’t we have competition for longer haul flights?”

In 2015, the federal government led by Justin Trudeau nixed a proposal by Porter Airlines, which operates out of Billy Bishop, that would amend the 1983 Tripartite Agreement prohibiting runway expansions and jets unless all parties agree.

At the time, Porter wanted to expand the runway by about 200 metres so that jets could fly passengers to further destinations, including Vancouver, Los Angeles and the Caribbean.

The proposal was highly debated by city council, with a large group of residents—organizing under the name “NoJetsTO”—arguing that it would cause increased noise pollution and could have a negative environmental impact.

Norm Di Pasquale, chair of NoJetsTO, told CP24 on Thursday if the runway was expanded, jets would “dominate” Toronto’s waterfront and have a significant impact on other businesses, including the city’s film industry.

“If we were to fly jets out of the island airport, really jets would end up dominating the whole waterfront,” he said. “We’d have jets roaring over the port lands, jets roaring over our beautiful revitalized waterfront.”

The city just spend $1.2 billion revitalizing the Don River and creating a space where affordable housing could be built, Di Pasquale said, while adding that Poilievre’s argument about gridlock doesn’t make sense considering the UP Express will take travellers to Pearson in about 15 minutes.

“If we were to ten have jets land here at this island airport, we wouldn’t be able to build quite as high in the Port Lands and the film industry would have jets roaring overhead every 20 to 60 seconds,” he said. “We have to think about what we are taking away when we add something.”

Poilievre, however, argues that a couple hundred “millionaire mansion owners” are the reason why the runway hasn’t been allowed to expand.

“The big majority of working class customers and workers want this to go ahead because it means bigger pay cheques. It means more travel. And it means better choice for customers,” he said.

Billy Bishop airport, which is located on the Toronto Island, currently offers flights to more than 20 cities in Canada and the United States. It transports about 2.8 million passengers per year and is operated by PortsToronto.

In a statement, Ports Toronto said they have no plans to make any changes to the airport or its operations beyond what has already been outlined in their Managed Growth Strategy. 

“The last two years have been challenging, and as we emerge from the pandemic Billy Bishop Airport is singularly focused on recovery, customer service, and investing in improvements that will make the airport cleaner, greener and quieter.”