Pickering airport nixed by federal government

Ted Barris

After more than a half-century of uncertainty about a potential commercial airport being built in the east end of the GTA, on Monday the federal government cancelled all plans to build a Pickering airport.

Just after noon on Monday, in a packed reception hall at Pickering Glen Golf Club, and in front of federal, provincial and municipal politicians from across Durham Region, as well as Land Over Landings lobbyists, reporters and members of the public, an emotional Jennifer O’Connell, MP for Pickering-Uxbridge, made the announcement.

Pickering-Uxbridge MP Jennifer O’Connell announces that “an airport will not be built on the Pickering lands.” Photo by Ted Barris

“Following our government’s engagement with community members, we’re thrilled to announce that an airport will not be built on the Pickering lands,” she said.

The decision means that 35 square kilometres (or 8,700 acres) of land retained by the Government of Canada since 1972 and expropriated for a potential development as a future airport in Pickering will instead undergo review via public consultation to determine its future use. Moderating the media conference, an emotional MP O’Connell thanked those who had campaigned against the proposed airport and congratulated her cabinet colleague, Anita Anand, minister of transport, for serving as the “lightning bolt” sparking the decision to cancel any plans to build a Pickering airport.

“Instead, the government of Canada intends to transfer the vast majority of the lands to Parks Canada,” Minister Anand told the media conference, “and launch consultation on the uses of the remaining land (which also) means the protection of the greenbelt lands.” She indicated the federal government’s strong preference to see the airport lands added to the original Rouge National Urban Park lands, created by the Liberal government in 2015.

In her remarks, MP O’Connell explained the uncertainty around the Pickering lands had originally drawn her from municipal politics to the federal arena. “Removing the constant threat of an airport on these lands,” she said, “has been the civic mission of a countless number of dedicated citizens in our community since they were expropriated in 1972.”

David Crombie, former Toronto mayor, greets Mary Delaney of Land Over Landings on Monday, prior to the federal government announcement about Pickering Airport lands. Photo by Ted Barris

Many of those anti-airport campaigners attended the media conference, including past chair of the lobby group Land Over Landings (LOL), Mary Delaney. She explained the announcement had been in the works for some time, but “it wasn’t until the announcement of today’s press conference that we really believed it. … Fifty-three years this has been going on. And so many ghosts around, people that we’re thinking of right now.”

Those who supported the confiscation of farmlands and greenbelt in Durham Region have maintained since 1972 that an airport in Pickering would ease the pressure and congestion at Pearson International, Hamilton International and more recently Billy Bishop Airport. However, a federal government study in 2016 concluded that the GTA would not need a new facility until at least 2036. LOL campaigner Delaney acknowledged the early support of then Toronto mayor David Crombie, “who drove out in a pickup truck with a Toronto flag flying in support of women occupying a house (against expropriation) in 1973.”

“When federal minister Jean Marchand made his intentions known about expropriating lands and building a Pickering Airport,” Crombie explained, “Toronto City Council gave me $50,000 to help fight the airport. For us, nature in the city was part of our upbringing.” Then, looking around press conference, he added, “It’s great to see so many of those campaigners still surviving.”

Among those able to attend the airport cancellation announcement was longtime farmer Bob Almack; in 1972 he farmed with his father north of Claremont. “I was 21 years old, growing wheat on the family farm. My dad did the research that a second airport was not needed. … He made such a stink, they ensured he’d be the only one left farming at the edge of an airport runway.” Almack senior died in 2013, but concluded his son, “Today he’d be jubilant.”

MP O’Connell concluded the media conference thanking all those who’d worked to convince cabinet to cancel a Pickering airport forever.

“This is proof that grassroots advocacy works. This is what community means,” she said.