After months of heated debate, Toronto city councillors will finally decide the fate of Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport and whether or not plans for a new runway extension will go forward.
City council will vote Tuesday on whether to move forward with a proposal put forward by Porter Airlines to expand airport runways by 200 metres on each end for jets.
Last week, members of Toronto’s executive committee voted 11-1 to move ahead with negotiations on the expansion.
Porter has said that runway expansions would allow the airline to increase its services, which have increased from 26,000 passengers in 2006 to 2.3 million in 2013.
Last year, Porter signed a multi-billion dollar deal to purchase up to 30 CSeries jets from Bombardier. The airline has argued that without extending the runways by 200 metres at each end, the island airport can only accommodate small turboprop engine planes.
But residents have expressed concerns over the cost of the expansion and possible effects on local drinking water, traffic, noise pollution and marine wildlife.
As councillors get set to cast the final vote, supporters from both sides of the debate have ramped up their campaigns.
NoJetsTO, an online campaign launched to stop the expansion from going through, has been asking tax-payers to call allegedly undecided councillors to tell them to vote against the motion.
Meanwhile, Porter Airlines has launched its own ad campaign, asking the public to urge their councillors to vote in favour of the proposal.
Counc. Gloria Linsday-Luby says the campaigning has gotten out of hand, noting that she received a land-line text message from Porter Airlines at her home at 4 a.m. on Sunday.
“I have never seen anything like it in all my years of council,” she told reporters at city hall on Monday.
“It’s like 50 casino lobbyists -- it’s unreal,” she said.
Based on how executive members voted last week and how councillors responded to CTV Toronto today:
- 19 councillors say they would vote “Yes”
- 7 councillors say they would vote “No”
- 12 councillors are still undecided
- 6 did not respond
The motion requires 23 votes for approval.
Coun. Peter Milczyn, the only member of the executive committee who voted to kill the plan, thinks he can convince councillors to vote against the proposal.
“I think at council as a whole, there will be a fair bit of support to simply say ‘No’ now, more so than at executive committee, but we’ll see how the debate unfolds tomorrow,” he told CTV Toronto.
If council does decide to advance the deal, it would come be up for final approval next year in front of a brand new council.
With a report by CTV Toronto’s Natalie Johnson
