Potential development of Pickering Airport gets mixed reviews in Stouffville

Yorkregion.com
June 13, 2019
Simon Martin

The never-ending looming decision about the Pickering Airport is something that has lingered over Whitchurch-Stouffville for 47 years ever since the federal government expropriated land for it in 1972.

Grahame Taylor is an eighth-generation farmer from Stouffville. While he works for Reesor Farm Market, he also rents a small 10-acre plot from Transport Canada in Pickering where he is planning to grow soybeans this year.

The land is decent but it would be better with some investment installing tile draining, Taylor said. That’s something few farmers are willing to do on rented land that could be turned into an airport at the drop of a hat.

As houses have swallowed up vast portions of the good farmland in the GTA, many farmers have been forced to relocate or change careers.

The group Land Over Landings does just what its name says. They advocate for farmland instead of an airport. A large crowd filled a community centre in Claremont June 2 to voice their opposition to the airport.

“We might need an airport some day to fly in food we can’t grow anymore,” said Land Over Landings chair Mary Delaney.

The Pickering Airport lands, class one farmland expropriated in the 1970s, are currently being considered in an aviation study commissioned by the federal government.

Diane Saxe, who was Ontario’s environmental commissioner from 2015 until the position was abolished by the province in late 2018, said her job was to report to the legislature on a non-partisan basis.

Her presentation in Claremont centred on climate change, which she said is worsened by airports, more driving and more pavement.

“We need land, not landings,” she said.

Climate change, said Saxe, changes everything. “Is it as bad as we think? I’m afraid it’s much worse.”

But as groups band together to voice their concerns with the airport, there appears to be much support for the project in York and Durham Region among politicians.

Support for a Pickering Airport is confirmed from Durham Region, Pickering, Ajax, Whitby and Brock.

York Region chair Wayne Emmerson is also throwing his support behind the endeavour. “The federal government has to make a decision one way or another,” he said. “It is about the economic development all around the airport. Jobs are very crucial.” Emmerson said the airport would bring high-level jobs to the area boosting the economy.

Whitchurch-Stouffville Mayor Iain Lovatt was less committal about the airport: “I am still gathering relevant information and getting perspectives from members of council and residents before making a comment on the airport. A statement will be forthcoming.”

A week before the Oct. 22 election last year, Lovatt told a large crowd of residents at an all-candidates’ debate that he did not support the development of the Pickering Airport.

“I think it’s more important to protect the quality of life that we love in Whitchurch-Stouffville and not have 747s flying over our heads,” Lovatt said in the lead up to the election.

Markham-Stouffville MP Jane Philpott said she will need to hear from her constituents on the matter and review the evidence.

Delaney believes the huge amount of time the federal government has held onto the land speaks volumes. “If there was a business case there would be an airport,” she said. “It was a stupid idea then and it’s a stupid idea now.”

Back in April at a Toronto Region Board of Trade lunch, American academic and aviation consultant John Kasarda said the Pickering Airport could be an aerotropolis that would create a regional competitive advantage for the GTA. “It drives development outward,” said Kasarda. “It’s how you put it together, and are you going to have the opportunity to do that.”

The airport analysis commissioned by the federal government is expect to be completed later this year.