Ontario Transport Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria says the federal government conceded to “fringe groups” in rejecting a plan to allow jets to land at Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport.
“If this is how they’re going to treat bigger projects, I don’t think you’ll get much built,” he said at a Tuesday news conference in St. Thomas, Ont, while promising to move ahead with the plan.
A source with knowledge of the discussions tells CBC News that, in response, Ontario is now rethinking its support for the Alto high-speed rail project.
Federal Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon made the rejection public in a social media post on Friday, saying that the government will focus exclusively on “approved safety enhancements” for the downtown airport instead.
He said Ottawa came to the decision following consultations, citing a public survey in which 87 per cent of respondents opposed the move.
But a senior Liberal source says the timing wasn’t a coincidence. The party hopes to hold its seat in the Toronto riding of Beaches-East York in the Aug. 31 byelection announced on Sunday.
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The source says the decision to make the announcement was based partially on the knowledge that the NDP opposed the expansion, and would likely campaign on the issue.
But the province was caught off guard by the move, as it contradicts months of talks centred on reciprocal support for Alto and the Billy Bishop expansion, two sources familiar with the discussions told CBC News.
Both projects face some pushback from the affected residents, and both require governments to expend some political capital.
Federal government won’t support Ontario’s Billy Bishop Airport expansion
According to one source familiar with the discussions, Ontario Premier Doug Ford shared his disappointment with the prime minister over the weekend and the province is now re-evaluating its approach to Alto. Trains reaching speeds of 300 km/h are expected to cut through valuable Ontario farmland, with stops in major cities between Toronto and Quebec City.
CBC News is not naming the sources because they were not authorized to speak about the discussions. The news was first reported by the Toronto Star.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office defended the high-speed rail plan, calling it a “generational investment” that will carry “approximately 24 million riders annually by 2055 and up to 43 million by 2085.”
The two levels of government previously agreed to collaborate on “the planning and advancement of Alto” in a partnership agreement.
The province passed legislation in May to take Toronto’s place in the tripartite agreement that governs the airport, taking over city-owned lands on the adjacent waterfront and the Toronto Islands.
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Sarkaria did not explain how he plans to move forward on the Billy Bishop expansion without the federal support still required in the agreement.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, who opposes the jet accommodation at the airport, is now calling on the province to return the land.
“The provincial government needs the federal government’s support to move forward, which they do not currently have,” a spokesperson for Chow’s office said in a statement to CBC News.
“They should repeal the bill and return the land to the city.”
