{"id":43343,"date":"2013-05-01T08:30:54","date_gmt":"2013-05-01T12:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=43343"},"modified":"2013-05-01T00:25:18","modified_gmt":"2013-05-01T04:25:18","slug":"lorinc-waterfront-toronto-parachutes-into-the-island-airport-jets-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/05\/01\/lorinc-waterfront-toronto-parachutes-into-the-island-airport-jets-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: Waterfront Toronto parachutes into the Island airport jets debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Later this morning, Waterfront Toronto (WT) will release an economic impact study, the latest in a series of analyses<\/a> [PDF] that seek to show how the public dollars that have flowed into the development agency yielded returns such as jobs, expenditures on materials, and new tax revenues. With WT at the half-way point of its approved 20-year mandate, many of the big projects will come on-line in the next few years, including the $110 million stem-to-stern remake of Queen\u2019s Quay Blvd.<\/p>\n

The attendees for the event include various private sector worthies, as well as councillor Michael Thompson, MPP Glen Murray (the Liberals\u2019 transportation and infrastructure minister), and Lisa Raitt, the federal labour minister.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a kind of homecoming for Raitt, whose last pre-politics gig as CEO of the Toronto Port Authority during Robert Deluce\u2019s four-year campaign to launch Porter Airlines. Those who have frequented past WT pressers will know that the Feds are almost always represented by finance minister Jim Flaherty, who was present at the birth and has long taken a generally constructive interest in the agency\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n

So Raitt\u2019s presence is noteworthy, and hardly coincidental, given that Deluce, her previous client, is pushing hard to re-open the tripartite agreement so a smaller species of Bombardier jet<\/a>, the CS-100, will be allowed to use Billy Bishop.<\/p>\n

(When he first appeared with the plan to revive the island airport, in 2002, Deluce insisted that jets \u2014 banned under the deal between the TPA, Ottawa and the City \u2014 weren\u2019t on his radar. As the Toronto Star reported on October 5, 2002, \u201cWhile Deluce is adamant he has no plans to use jets, many waterfront residents fear expanded turboprop service out of the island is the thin edge of the wedge.\u201d)<\/p>\n

I\u2019m guessing the WT\u2019s economic impact study will be rapidly overtaken by jet questions. A spokesperson for Murray told me the minister \u201cis very interested in learning more but it is a federal-municipal issue.\u201d Raitt, needless to say, will almost certainly be asked for her views on Deluce\u2019s gambit.
\nWhat\u2019s apparent is that WT officials \u2014 who have a long history of maintaining a studied neutrality on the subject of the island airport\u2019s current operations \u2014 want to pose a lot of questions if council votes to order up a formal study by early July, as recommended last week by executive committee.<\/a><\/p>\n

In an interview yesterday, WT chief executive John Campbell itemized for me a range of potential impacts that jets could have on waterfront development:<\/p>\n