Pickering airport won't fly with Liberals, NDP: Markham-Stouffville election meeting

'Airport the size of Buttonville,' OK with Conservative incumbent

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 24, 2015
By Laura Finney

The Liberals will not consider building the Pickering airport, Liberal candidate Jane Philpott told an all-candidates meeting for the riding of Markham-Stouffville at the Ballantrae Golf and Country Club on Wednesday night.

“An airport of any size would be a concern in this community,” she said to the full room, noting the Liberals had analyzed the capacities of surrounding airports.

“We have come to the conclusion there is not a legitimate business case for an airport of any size on the Pickering lands,” she said of the property due east of the riding. “We will not proceed with an airport, we will immediately establish a committee to look at alternate uses for this very valuable land.”

Her NDP counterpart, Gregory Hines, agreed

“We are not looking to expand on the airport at all here,” he said, adding an NDP government would look at other ways to utilize that space.

But Paul Calandra, the MP for Oak Ridges-Markham, and Conservative candidate for the new riding, said an airport was not off the table for the Conservatives.

“There is absolutely zero plans for a large international airport there. There is zero plans for a commercial cargo hub,” he said. “I do support moving the Buttonville Airport and building a general aviation airport the size of Buttonville on a portion of those lands ... and unleashing the potential of these lands as an important investment tool for jobs, economic growth, continued jobs for our farmers, more lands for our farmers.”

He said after the recent expansion of land in the park, the Conservatives appointed someone to look at the remaining 9,000 acres of “expensive federally owned land close to the GTA” and meet with community members, businesses and industries’ to come up with ways to use it.

He listed options like a university, a research hub and more farming opportunities.

“Then we would proceed very rapidly to put a final conclusion to 42-year mistake that has held back massive amounts of lands for economic growth and activity for far too long, and has treated our farmers extremely bad,” he said.

“I would never allow the position that you (Liberals) have taken to reforest half of that farmland and take it out of the hands of our farmers and evict some of our farmers. They have been great stewards of the land, they have suffered for far too long and they deserve to continue to farm.”

The airport was just one of several issues discussed during the meeting, which was hosted by former Whitchurch-Stouffville councillor Phil Bannon.

The candidates also faced questions from a panel and the audience about veterans, refugees, senior issues, protecting the north and the economy.

They were also asked about healthcare, specifically for seniors.

Hines talked about Tommy Douglas and his legacy for the NDP, noting healthcare is very important to the party. He highlighted some of the NDP plans which include reversing the Conservative’s $36 billion cuts to health transfer, expanding coverage of prescription drugs and returning eligibility for Old Age Security to 65.

Philpott said they would address a number of concerns faced by seniors including financial issues related to healthcare, and also promised returning eligibility for old age security and guaranteed income supplement back to 65.

Calandra talked about the Conservatives’ plans to help with prescription drug costs.

“We think the best approach to that ... is if federal government becomes the purchaser of all of the drugs that the seniors are going to be using,” he said but added they are still waiting for provincial acceptance of this plan.

He also discussed some of the financial contributions the federal government has made to healthcare.

“Each year we’ve been in office, we’ve increased funding to the provinces at about six per cent a year,” he said, adding that will continue until 2017 when it will increase a minimum three per cent for the next 10 years.

“The federal government does provide funding to provinces and we hope the provinces would then use that funding accordingly,” he said.

But he said in Ontario the provincial government has made significant cuts to health care. Over the past 10 years, despite the funding increase from the federal government, on average they have invested about 2.8 per cent back into the healthcare system.

“I think that is obviously completely unacceptable,” he said. “Ontario has one of the lowest per capita spending on healthcare.”

But Philpott argued while the federal government does offer a large amount of money, about $36 billion a year, to the provinces for healthcare, there is little discussion between the federal and provincial governments as a group.

“The prime minister has not in fact sat down with the provincial counterparts, the premiers, all together since 2009,” she said. “It’s a rather shameful reality and makes it very, very difficult to solve these challenging problems.”

Hines agreed.

So did a member of the audience who asked Calandra why Stephen Harper has not met with the provincial leaders in six years.

Calandra responded said Harper has had more than 644 meetings with the premiers and ministers have had annual provincial territory meetings.

He said the meeting in 2009 was for a specific purpose, to address global economic uncertainty.

“What we will not do is convene a first minister conference that doesn’t have a specific direction to solve a specific problem,” he said, adding it has been successful working with premiers, MPs and cabinet ministers directly.

Philpott said she was baffled by this.

“We are a country, we are a federation. It makes sense for people to work together. Canadians are by nature collaborative people,” she said. “And they think it makes sense for the leader of our country to sit down with the leaders of our provinces on a regular basis to discuss the important issues that affect Canadians.”

The other candidate in the riding, Myles O’Brien of the Green Party, was not invited to take part, Mr. Bannon said.

Election day is Oct. 19.