Unfriendly skies: Vaughan residents frustrated by air traffic in and out of Toronto's Pearson Airport

Yorkreigon.com
Nov. 9, 2023

Residents of Vaughan are upset that the frequency and duration of flights from Toronto’s Pearson Airport has seemingly increased into the city.

While this issue has been ongoing for a few years, dating back to 2017, recently it has begun to pick up steam. According to Toronto Pearson’s own WebTrak, the area of Vaughan-Woodbridge filed 3,057 complaints in  August this year.

"I'm getting departures and arrivals two in the morning that wakes me up and it's so noisy..," said Rose Savage.

“I'm getting departures and arrivals two in the morning that wakes me up and it's so noisy. I'm having to wake up on this two, three, five, six... It's nonstop,” said Rose Savage, a resident of Vaughan-Woodbridge.

Frustrated, residents are looking for answers from government officials.

“I do understand these are valid concerns that the residents have brought up because they are concerns that have been brought up in Etobicoke and Humber-River Black Creek, in Mississauga and Brampton. These are concerns that have been raised in other areas of the GTA,” said Francesco Sorbara, member of parliament of Vaughan-Woodbridge.

Sorbara says his government is working to address the issue by introducing Bill C-52: "An Act to enact the Air Transportation Accountability Act and to amend the Canada Transportation Act and the Canada Marine Act". The bill would introduce legislation making noise management committees compulsory across the country.

“It is a very large step forward in implementing changes to address. And I think implementing a permanent change in the structure and how noise from airports is dealt with,” said Sorbara.

Currently, there are two noise monitoring terminals in Vaughan, one in the west in Vellore Village at Matthew Park and another in the east at Wade Gate Park. However, residents in northern Vaughan feel that the data captured by the existing noise terminals is inadequate.

Several Vaughan residents have suggested that the effects of the flights are not results from the pandemic, which changed operational decisions, but rather the efforts of lobbying from adjacent municipalities to run planes differently than they have in the past.

According to NAVCAN’s June 2022 report titled “AIRSPACE CHANGE COMMUNITY CONSULTATION REPORT: Proposed RNP AR Approaches Runway 05 and 23 Toronto Pearson Airport,” changes were indeed made to affect the northern part of Vaughan.

Thanks to the new portion of the flight path, the curved Required Navigation Performance (RNP) would reduce overflying in the areas of Georgetown and Milton, states the report:

“This represents a reduction in population overflown from the typical arrival routing that would either fly further southwest over Georgetown only to turn and arrive on runway 05 after flying over Milton, or further northeast only to turn and land on runway 23 after flying over northern Vaughan and Richmond Hill.”

It further states that an “increase in altitude for some aircraft in the south downwind. Communities to the south, such as Toronto, Mississauga, and Oakville, impacted by Runways 06L/R and Runways 24L/R will benefit due to RNP.”

“An estimated 29 to 48 aircraft per day will utilize the curved segment of the approach procedure and an estimated 21 to 35 aircraft per day will use the tangent segment of the approach procedure,” says the report, in reference to the RNP.

However, NavCanada and the GTAA notified the public about the RNP through town halls and a public notice in the Nov. 4 and Nov. 11, 2021 print editions of Vaughan Citizen newspaper, which was verified by Yorkregion.com.

“We're sensitive to concerns from communities as it relates to noise. Noise mitigation is a challenging topic. When we do the design of airspace, we do take it into account,” said Jonathan Bagg, a spokesperson for NavCanada.

“We're continually listening to the community and participating in the airports' forums, where this is discussed and looking and considering ways to mitigate noise where we can,” added Bagg.

But why was Vaughan selected to see an increase in usage?

“When they looked at the air the routes into and out of the airport, they were looking at what's the best route for safety, what's the best route to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and environmental[sic], what's the most efficient route like? Those are the factors at play,” said Sorbara, who is also the Greater Toronto Airport Authority caucus chair.

Another factor in the increased usage of Runway 05 for departures and Runway 23 for arrivals affecting Vaughan is the implementation of dualling.

“We are starting to see some more of what we call dualling. So using two runways. Because typically, we were still departing 05 in the past. That in itself is not new. We're just seeing more of it,” said Bagg.

“So I do expect, over time, as traffic returns, we're going to see more mixed runway usage. That is something we do expect to happen gradually over time,” added Bagg.