The new Liberal government has acted with indecent haste to kill a proposal to fly jets out of Billy Bishop, Toronto's island airport. For a crew that says it is committed to open consultation and sound science, this is not a good way to begin.
The jets idea is still under study. Toronto city council voted last year to seek reports on the effect an expanded, jets-capable airport would have on boaters, the harbour and the environment. Council is still waiting to see the results.
Now, little more than a week after the Liberals took office, Transport Minister Marc Garneau has moved to close all further debate on the issue. Ottawa, he made clear on Thursday, will not allow the three-party agreement that governs the airport to be reopened. That pre-empts any decision by city council, the seat of local government.
End of story. End of discussion. End of a dream by Porter Airlines boss Robert Deluce to take his passengers farther and in greater comfort. End of the hopes of Bombardier to sell some of its C Series jets to Porter.
Why did the Liberals feel the need to bring down the hammer so quickly on the jets proposal? It would have been easy enough for Mr. Garneau to say he would rather wait for the studies to come in before making a final decision. He was saying something very much like that only hours before his jets-killing announcement, stating that "What I'm doing at the moment is examining all of the factors that are involved in this. It's a complex issue."
It is indeed. Mr. Deluce insists that the state-of-the-art jets will be no noisier than the turboprops that now fly out of the island's Billy Bishop airport. If the studies confirmed that, the case for opposing jets traffic would lose much of its force. Further study would also show whether the extended runway would interfere with harbour pleasure-boat traffic. If not, and the buoys restricting boaters were to stay more or less where they are at present, then the anti-jets argument would lose another leg.
City officials said on Friday that they are still working on airport issues and haven't heard anything official from Ottawa, which announced its decision in a Tweet from Mr. Garneau.
But why wait on facts? Toronto Liberal Adam Vaughan let it be known as soon as the Liberals won that the jets proposal was dead. He didn't get a cabinet post, but he is a prominent MP and it easy to imagine how he would have felt about any pussyfooting on the issue from the cabinet.
The jets decision deals a blow to one of Canada's boldest entrepreneurs, Mr. Deluce, who built a brilliant little airline from nothing and brought new competition and better service to the skies. It deals a blow to Bombardier, the troubled aerospace giant that is seeking help from Ottawa. How would it make sense to offer the company government cash on one hand and on the other hand deny it the ability to pull itself up by its bootstraps by selling planes to Porter?
Most troubling, the Liberal decision puts a shadow over the island airport. Just minutes from the city's financial hub, it offers business travellers and thousands of downtown residents a convenient alternative to making the trek out to Pearson. A new tunnel makes it even more useful, allowing passengers to skip a ferry ride. Because of Porter's success, the airport has become a prime asset for the city.
The Conservative government saw that and backed up its commitment by helping to build a new tunnel to the island, allowing passengers to skip a ferry ride. Mayor Rob Ford saw it, too. He was a big Deluce booster. His successor, John Tory, is staying out of the issue because his son works for an airline that has an office at Billy Bishop.
That leaves Mr. Vaughan, a long-time critic of the airport. He and his allies complain about noise and traffic congestion from the facility. With them in the driver's seat, the airport faces a less-certain future. Remember that the mayor before Mr. Ford, David Miller, was a committed airport foe who came to office on a pledge to stop a bridge to take passengers there.
Do we really want to go back to the days when the airport was a constant political battleground? Jets or no jets, the island airport is great for Toronto. The least the Liberals can do is say they are committed to its success.
Marcus Gee