Is Miller tilting at turboprops?
Cross-posted to Spacing Votes
In the wake of the revelations this week about the $20 million start-up subsidy for Robert Deluce’s Porter Air, Community Air research coordinator Marc Brien laid out three scenarios for blocking the increasingly imminent launch of this new service.
Here they are, in order. One, Stephen Harper’s government, responding to public outrage about the sweet-heart deal between the Martin Liberals and the Toronto Port Authority (TPA), could force Deluce to fly out of Pearson. Second, the city could make getting to that Bathurst Street terminal really irritating, with a combination of “aggressive” traffic calming measures, ticketing and new restrictions on the permitted use of the city-owned land the TPA wants for queue lanes. Three, the city could seek an injunction in court against the port authority because the Q400 may be in violation of safety conditions in the Tripartite Agreement.
David Miller says the $20 million deal is “outrageous” and hopes it will motivate Transport minister Lawrence Cannon to download the port authority to the city after Roger Tasse releases his review next month. “I would think Stephen Harper understands that completely,” he said after a speech Friday at the Board of Trade.
Really? Quite apart from the Liberals’ double-dealing on the airport file, there’s little mystery to why official Ottawa wants the TPA to remain solvent and Porter to fly. If the feds shutter one money-losing port authority, they may have to do the same with some of the others in a similar position. As for the airline, let’s remember that Industry Canada in 1996 invested $57 million in the development of the Q400, and it wants to see a return on that investment. On a more partisan note, it’s really tough to imagine that a business-friendly, environmentally challenged government would do anything to obstruct Deluce who, after all, has long-standing Tory ties. So much for tactic one.
Then what about the nuisance tactics and the injunction? Deluce has been very public about his latest plans since January, what with the terminal construction, the branding campaign and the delivery of the new planes. Yet despite all that activity, the city hasn’t done a thing to throw up the obstacles Brien describes. Last I checked, there’s are no new speed bumps or turn restrictions down there, nor a change in the city’s lease with the port authority on the use of that land at the foot of Bathurst. As for the injunction, Community Air has been warning about the runway safety issues for years, but is the city gearing up to take the TPA to court now that Porter’s launch is around the corner and there are Q400s now landing down there? Not that I know of.
Which begs the question: What is Miller waiting for? And where’s all the tough talk from 2003, when he was quite specific about what needed to be done to stop the bridge?
When I asked the mayor to comment on Community Air’s proposed tactics, he said the city is “limited” in what it can do and reiterated he is “hopeful” that Cannon will dismantle the port authority for violating its mandate.
And if Cannon doesn’t, what then? “I’m not going to speculate on ifs,” Miller replied.
Why not? And where’s Plan B? Maybe the mayor’s playing his legal cards close to the vest. But I doubt it. The mayor is acutely aware of the fact that he’s got to sweet talk a Toronto-phobic, election-minded government into renewing housing, environment and transit programs worth millions of dollars. If he decides at this late stage to wage hand-to-hand legal combat with the port authority and Deluce, will he imperil his tenuous relations with the Harperites? I’d say the answer is yes and he knows it.
