Tuesday, May 19, 2026

The committee met at 1001 in room 151.

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Consideration of the following bill:

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Bill 110, An Act to enact the Building Billy Bishop Airport Act, 2026 / Projet de loi 110, Loi édictant la Loi de 2026 sur la construction de l’aéroport Billy Bishop.

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The Clerk pro tem (Mr. Stefan Uguen-Csenge)

Good morning, honourable members. It is my duty to call upon you to elect a Chair. Are there any nominations? MPP Saunderson.

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Mr. Brian Saunderson

I nominate MPP Babikian.

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The Clerk pro tem (Mr. Stefan Uguen-Csenge)

Are there any further nominations? There being no further nominations, I declare the nominations closed and MPP Babikian elected Chair of the committee.

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The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

Good morning, everyone. I call this meeting of the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy to order. We are meeting today to begin public hearings on Bill 110, An Act to enact the Building Billy Bishop Airport Act, 2026. The Clerk of the Committee has distributed today’s meeting documents virtually via SharePoint. To make sure that everyone who speaks is heard and understood, it is important that all participants speak slowly and clearly. Please wait until I recognize you before starting to speak. As always, all comments should go through the Chair. Are there any questions before we begin? Seeing none, I will now call Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria to make his deputation.

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The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

As a reminder, each presenter will have seven—my apologies; I jumped the queue. I will now call on Minister Sarkaria. Minister, you will have 20 minutes to make an opening statement, followed by 39 minutes of questions from the members of the committee. This time for questions will be divided into two rounds of six and a half minutes for government members, two round of six and a half minutes to the official opposition members and two round of six and a half minutes to the third party. Are there any questions? Seeing none, I call upon Minister Sarkaria to start his deputation.

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

Good morning. Thank you very much, Chair, for the opportunity to be here and thank you to all the members that are present as well. I look forward to having this discussion with you and the opportunity to engage on this very important piece of legislation. Our government is focused on Toronto’s long-term success, and we have championed this city since we have taken office. We were elected on a promise to protect Ontario. This means protecting the economic engine of this province and country. It means stopping at nothing to elevate Ontario and Toronto’s standing on the world stage. And it means doing everything in our power to unlock the full potential of Billy Bishop airport. We’ve made historic investments in Toronto’s infrastructure to tackle gridlock, shorten travel times and drive economic growth across the city and province. Our new deal for Toronto committed $9 billion to support transit, housing and critical infrastructure. And as a part of that deal, we’re conducting due diligence to upload the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway to the province. This will ensure that both highways remain safe, reliable and in good state of repair, and most importantly, that they remain toll free for the city’s drivers. We are building a new, state-of-the-art Ontario Place that will attract millions of visitors annually, generating economic benefits for years to come. We’re investing in a new OPP detachment at Ontario Place to keep Toronto’s roads safe. And now, we have the opportunity to unlock Billy Bishop airport, something that could accommodate millions of visitors each year and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in economic output for Toronto and our province. The Toronto Port Authority has a bold vision to expand Billy Bishop airport to capitalize on the airport’s full potential, and maximize good-paying jobs for Ontario’s aviation, tourism and construction industries. It’s our duty to protect Ontario—our duty to make the investments that will spur economic growth here in Toronto and across the province. That’s why we’re proud to put our support behind the modernization and expansion of Billy Bishop. Billy Bishop is a critical and underused part of Ontario’s transportation infrastructure, and we are stepping in to help unlock its next phase of growth. Our government is supporting a long-term modernization and expansion of Billy Bishop airport by moving to assume the city of Toronto’s responsibilities in the tripartite agreement and take ownership of the city-owned airport lands in exchange for fair compensation. An expanded Billy Bishop will help meet rising demand, relieve the pressure on Pearson, increase competition, give travelers more choice and create good-paying jobs. These are the kinds of infrastructure investments Ontario needs to stay competitive, support future growth and keep the people in this province moving. We tabled the Building Transit Faster Act to streamline project delivery and accelerate provincial transit projects for the city, such as the Ontario Line subway. We introduced the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act to accelerate construction of Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass, which will save drivers across the GTA valuable time each day. With the Building Billy Bishop Airport Act, we are doubling down on our commitment to building infrastructure that will make Toronto stronger. We are taking a stand against the naysayers and showing what we can accomplish when the government of Ontario puts its full weight behind the city of Toronto. Currently, Billy Bishop airport serves approximately two million passengers each year. Billy Bishop connects Toronto to about 20 cities across Canada and the United States. The airport generates about $1.8 billion in economic output each year and contributes $900 million to Ontario’s GDP. But it could do so much more, and it will do so much more. According to the Toronto Port Authority, expanding the airport could attract millions more travelers annually, contributing an estimated $8.5 billion to Canada’s economy each year by 2050, and support close to 23,000 jobs in Ontario’s construction sector alone. We’re doing our part to make that vision a reality—to unleash Billy Bishop airport’s full economic potential by adding more routes, more convenience for millions of travelers across this province. We can do this. And through our government’s support [inaudible] make improvements to the terminal building and enhance access to Toronto’s waterfront as a part of this process. We will stop at nothing to protect Ontario, and expanding the Billy Bishop airport will unlock opportunities that will transform travel across southern Ontario and northern Ontario for generations to come. We’re only weeks away from FIFA World Cup 2026 kicking off right here in our city, in Toronto, with thousands of tourists from around the world expected to come through the city. Our government has gone to great lengths with the city of Toronto to ensure visitors to this city enjoy a world-class experience when they are here. We supported the city of Toronto with a $73-million investment to accelerate repairs to the Gardiner Expressway and, thanks to that collaboration and thanks to that investment, that work has been completed more than a year and a half ahead of schedule. That saves our economy almost $273 million a year, saving 140,000 drivers who use the Gardiner Expressway up to 22 minutes per trip. We knew we had to reopen the Gardiner, and we got the job done. That is just one example of this government’s decisive decision-making that has helped improve travel options in Toronto. We’re restoring vehicle lanes on some of the city’s busiest streets, so drivers spend less time in bumper-to-bumper traffic and more time with their families. We are harmonizing municipal road-building standards across the GTA so Toronto and other cities in the GTA can build the roads that people are counting on and using every single day. In addition to carrying out due-diligence work to upload the DVP and the Gardiner Expressway to the province, we’re also looking at bold new ways to fight gridlock in the GTA and the city of Toronto. That includes the studying of the feasibility of building a driver transit tunnel underneath a section of the 401 highway, a revolutionary concept that would dramatically improve traffic flow along one of the most congested highway corridors in North America. We are building Highway 413, which will save thousands of drivers in York, Peel and Halton regions up to 30 minutes per trip. And last week, we announced shovels are in the ground on the Bradford Bypass, a new four-lane highway that will save drivers in York region and Simcoe county up to 35 minutes per trip. We’re twinning the Garden City Skyway bridge on the QEW, a critical route to Niagara Falls. We are laying the groundwork to widen Highway 401 in Durham region and Highway 400 in Barrie. Drivers across the GTA have had enough of sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, and we’ve heard from them loud and clear. That’s why we are making historic investments in transportation infrastructure to fight gridlock, cut commute times and keep people moving. Each of these investments in highways and roads will ensure drivers across the GTA can get where they’re going quickly and easily each day, and ensure visitors to Toronto can experience everything southern Ontario has to offer without being stuck in gridlock. The expansion of Billy Bishop airport is the next step in our journey to support Toronto’s economy by investing in world-class transportation infrastructure, and we look forward to the city welcoming millions more visitors from around the globe each year. Public transit is a key driver of our economy and our quality of life. As we move forward to enable the Toronto Port Authority’s expansion of Billy Bishop airport, we’ll be welcoming more business travellers and tourists to Ontario, and they’ll be counting on our public transit to get where they’re going. Our government is investing nearly $70 billion over the next 10 years. It is pegged as the largest expansion in public transit in North American history; it is the greatest and largest expansion of subways in Canadian history as well. With the FIFA World Cup just around the corner, these investments have never been more important. We’re increasing GO Transit service during specific events like the World Cup to accommodate larger crowds; to move them through public transit. We’re adding more bus trips from downtown Toronto to Niagara Falls so visitors to this city can experience Canada’s top tourist destinations. And our historic GO Expansion Program will deliver two-way, all-day services on GO Transit’s busiest railroads. Our GO expansions and extensions will deliver new and improved service to communities in Durham region, Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton and Niagara. To date, we’ve spent close to $15 billion to deliver faster and more frequent service across the GO network, and we’re seeing these results. We’ve recently launched the first-ever weekend service from Toronto to Kitchener, making it easier to access the finest Oktoberfest activities outside of Germany. This summer, we’re launching GO rail service from Toronto to Stratford, making it easier than ever for thousands of visitors to get to the world-renowned Stratford Festival. We’ve broken ground on a Bowmanville expansion, which will expand the Lakeshore line almost 20 kilometres deeper into Durham region. We opened the Confederation GO station in Hamilton, and completed upgrades to West Harbour GO station that are saving almost 250,000 commuters in St. Catharines and Niagara Falls 15 minutes per round trip. Construction is under way at Caledonia GO in Toronto, a new station on the Barrie line that will serve as a vital transportation hub for commuters and tourists. We have shovels in the ground at Woodbine GO, a new station on the Kitchener line that will provide a direct connection to Woodbine Racetrack. Each of these investments will allow commuters and tourists to travel throughout the GTA effortlessly. The Eglinton Crosstown and the Finch West LRT are up and running, transporting more than 100,000-plus commuters across Toronto each day. Construction is under way across the entirety of the Ontario Line, which will give the city of Toronto 15 new subway stations. Wait times for the next train on the Ontario Line can be as low as 90 seconds, and 400,000 people will move through this line each and every single day once it is operational. We are moving forward to build the Yonge North subway extension, which will extend the TTC’s Line 1 subway to Vaughan, Markham and Richmond Hill for the first time. The Scarborough subway extension will extend the TTC’s Line 2 subway by almost eight kilometres. We’re tunnelling the final segment of the Eglinton Crosstown West extension, which will bring Line 5 Eglinton to Mississauga, opening a new world of possibilities for thousands of commuters across the GTA. With each of these projects, we are building an integrated transit network that will improve connectivity across the GTA. Whether you live here or you’re visiting, it’s never been easier to get around or more affordable. We’ve recently extended the One Fare program, which is saving transit riders up to $1,600 a year by allowing free transfers between the TTC, GO Transit and participating transit agencies across the GTA. Since One Fare launched, the program has enabled 82 million free transfers, saving Ontarians more than $264 million—money back into their pockets. We’ve recently tabled legislation that, if passed, would pave the way for One Fare 2.0. There has never been a better time to take transit in the GTA, and we’re continuing to make service faster, easier, more convenient and also more reliable. We’re building a world-class transit network that will support growth, create jobs and keep our economy moving.

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

By supporting the expansion of Billy Bishop airport, we are taking another step forward to strengthen connectivity across the region. As Ontario faces growing economic uncertainty, we have a responsibility to build the infrastructure our economy needs to stay competitive. I’m proud to be a part of the government that is taking action to support Toronto’s long-term economic growth and strengthen Ontario’s transportation network. The Building Billy Bishop Airport Act would allow the province to take control of city-owned lands at the airport in exchange for fair compensation. The province would also assume the role of the city in the tripartite agreement governing the airport, allowing us to partner with the Toronto Port Authority and the federal government to make this expansion project a success. And as always, we will commit and fully meet our duty to consult with Indigenous communities. We will also continue to uphold strong environmental protections as we move this work forward. Billy Bishop has an enormous potential to support Toronto’s growth, Ontario’s growth, as well as Canada’s growth. It can strengthen regional connectivity and give travellers more choice. We cannot let that potential go unrealized—and Toronto is a world-class city. If we look across major North American regions at Toronto’s scale, relying on more than one commercial airport, or a multi-airport system, is necessary. Houston, for example, has Bush and Hobby; Dallas has DFW and Love Field; south Florida has Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach; New York has JFK, LaGuardia and Newark; Chicago has O’Hare and Midway. The idea that a region the size of the GTA should make better use of Billy Bishop is not radical, it is common sense. We cannot, as I said before, let that potential go unrealized. That is why we tabled the Building Billy Bishop Airport Act, to unlock that full potential of one of Ontario’s most important transportation assets—something that will provide opportunities for generations to come. It will help reduce congestion, travel cost and economic competitiveness, and that is why we need to continue to drive forward on a project like this. Supporting the long-term modernization and expansion of Billy Bishop airport is critical as a part of Ontario’s plan for the future to remain competitive. Chair, as we see south of the border, we need to ensure that Toronto, Ontario, Canada is more self-reliant, is more resilient, is more competitive when we look into the future. We need to ensure that our economy has every opportunity possible to build to scale. When we look across Canada, we see our political leaders speaking about nation-building projects; about making sure that we build not only for today, not for the next five years but for generations to come. At this point in time in our country’s history we must unite under large infrastructure projects that will change the way we commute and change the way we do business in the province.

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The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

One minute.

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

Billy Bishop is one of Ontario’s busiest airports. It is one of the Canada’s busiest airports, serving over 20 cities across Canada and North America. That is why we will continue to work to ensure that the residents of Ontario have better travel options, there is more competition in the airline industry and more service to remote rural communities that are serviced through Billy Bishop, like those in northern Ontario. With that, Chair, I thank you for you the opportunity to speak before the committee and its members. I will turn it back over to you to start our round of discussion with our members with respect to this piece of legislation. Thank you very much, Chair, and I will pass it back over to you.

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The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

Thank you, Minister, for your presentation. Before we start the first round of questioning, I would like to bring to the attention of the committee two important issues to keep the decorum of the meeting and be more productive. First of all, when you ask questions, please allow the witnesses to answer the question as they see fit. Second, focus your questions on Bill 110 and don’t try to interject any other issues not related to Bill 110. Thank you very much for your attention. We will start this round with the government side—MPP Grewal. The government side has six and a half minutes. Go ahead.

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Mr. Hardeep Singh Grewal

Thank you, Minister, for your presentation today. The questions I want to put to you are more so—how is this airport expansion going to support Ontarians, not just in Toronto, but outside of Toronto? What kind of connectivity is this going to increase for the average commuter that flies? With this increased competition, would this have any impact on fares? And in general, what kind of economic impact is this going to bring to our city and to our province? I’m just going to start with you there.

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

Thank you very much for that question. Let’s start with the first part, about northern connectivity or to communities in northern Ontario. We have seen, in the past couple of years, a significant reduction in service and options for passengers in the north. Having a strong airport like Billy Bishop is going to be very key to continuing to ensure that communities like the north remain serviced. Right now, there is a significant amount of individuals from the north that use Billy Bishop airport to commute into very important communities, Timmins being an example. I think you’ll hear from the CEO of the Timmins hospital later today about the importance of making sure that you have continued access and what it means when some of that air access is then restricted: what it means from a health perspective; what it means for attracting physicians, doctors and the workforce in those communities to support a better quality of life. So when we look at Billy Bishop and we look at the opportunity it presents, it’s not just a Toronto opportunity, and that is what is so important. It is not only a Canada-wide, but also a province-wide opportunity, especially in communities like the north. And when we take it a step further with respect to what it means for travellers or those who use air travel across this province, there are many advantages to having a second airport. You spoke to competition. Any time we have competition, we see an opportunity for prices to decrease. We have seen that Billy Bishop has just put forward and completed a $30-million investment from the federal government in pre-clearance. That pre-clearance has now allowed additional flights into different communities in the US—I believe some of those being Chicago, LaGuardia and Nashville, as well—and that gives options for travellers in all of Ontario a different airport to use to get to where they need to go. Pearson is one of the busiest airports in the world. It connects a significant amount of international passengers and they have done a great job at it. This could almost be seen as complementary, but also something that will support travellers across this province. So the more options our travellers can have—if you are coming in from the Durham region and you don’t want to go all the way to Pearson and you want to use Billy Bishop, or you live in the city core and you can use Billy Bishop instead of having to go to Pearson—those are all the benefits that this airport can derive for an individual passenger. The benefits are significant and that is why we are driving forward with this approach. We are supporting the north and also supporting more demand—more air travel options for consumers across the province.

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Mr. Hardeep Singh Grewal

Minister, in your remarks earlier, you spoke about this being a nation-building project: how it’s something for Canada, something for Ontario, something for Toronto. What are we looking at in terms of GDP numbers, investments, job creation, job creation during construction and all the added benefits that come to local residents with this project?

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

If we look at how important Billy Bishop is just for Ontario’s economy, there are currently close to 4,900 people employed by Billy Bishop, almost directly through their services. As these operations increase, that number could get up to close to 10,000 employees. That tells you how many people depend on Billy Bishop just for a paycheque every single day. When you look at a 25-year period, you can see economic output of almost $140 billion derived from Billy Bishop in the future as we continue this modernization and continue the opportunity to attract more investment, to attract more people, tourists, businesses—everything put together. If you look at just the economic contribution of Billy Bishop today in Toronto, it’s close to $900 million in economic output for Ontario’s GDP. When we tie this all back, this is so important for us from a competitiveness perspective. Why are we talking about a nation-building project today? It’s because of the threat we face from south of the border where now we have to become more self-reliant, we have to become more resilient and we have to become a nation that can survive on its own. How do you do that? You build world-class transportation infrastructure across this province, and that’s exactly what we are doing through this. Not only it is going to create thousands of jobs during the construction time period, thousands of full-time jobs in the operations of this airport, but it will make Ontario, it will make Toronto, it will make Canada that much more competitive on a national scale. That is why we have to march forward on this project. That is why we have to get shovels in the ground, support the Toronto Port Authority on this modernization plan and continue to enable this airport to be a success moving forward. We can also look at this from—

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The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

Thank you, Minister. The time is up for this round for the government. We move to the official opposition. MPP Glover.

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Mr. Chris Glover

I’ll ask the minister to give brief, succinct answers. Our members have come from as far away as Thunder Bay with questions that our residents have asked us to ask the minister. So, yes or no, has a business case been done for the expansion of Billy Bishop to allow jets?

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

Look, Toronto Port Authority has led numerous reports; a numerous amount of work on this process. You see to date that we’ve got over two million passengers. The federal government just invested $30 million—

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Mr. Chris Glover

I’ll take that as a no because I didn’t hear, “Yes, there is a business case.” If there is a business case—

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

You can’t put words into my mouth.

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Mr. Chris Glover

You didn’t say no.

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

I’m going to continue to tell you that they continue to do this and they continue—as they’ve been very transparent—

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Mr. Chris Glover

I’m going to reclaim my time. My next question is, on March 23, when the Premier announced that he would be expanding Billy Bishop to allow for 10 million passengers and jets, he said the federal government is on board with the plan. When did the conversations with the federal government begin?

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

We always have conversations with the federal government on a variety of issues, and we’ll continue to engage. Myself, as Minister of Transportation—I’ll continue to meet with the federal Minister of Transportation. The Premier works very closely with the Prime Minister, especially in the wake of the threats south of the border, to continue to make sure that we are protecting Ontario and we are—

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Mr. Chris Glover

I’ll reclaim my time. Are you are confirming what the Premier said: that the federal government is on board with the plan to have jets at Billy Bishop?

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

They’re going to work with us, and you can see the statements from that. You can see the statements from the Prime Minister and see the statements from the federal Minister of Transportation on the modernization of Billy Bishop. If you would like to get their comment on it, I suggest you ask them. But we’re working with them to move this forward on a process moving forward.

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Mr. Chris Glover

Okay. The Billy Bishop airport is Canada’s smallest airport, sandwiched between high-rises on the waterfront and the Toronto Islands, which acts as a bird sanctuary with 40,000 cormorants in high season, 1,100 Tundra swans flying across in the fall. There are literally hundreds of thousands of birds, which all could lead to bird strikes like the one that led to the crashing of the jet in the Hudson River with the miracle on the Hudson. It’s in the most dangerous location, and it’s Canada’s smallest airport, and your government proposes to have jets landing 200 metres from an elementary school every two and a half minutes. Would you send your children to that school?

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

First of all, safety is our primary concern. Transport Canada guidelines will dictate the safety. This is why that we are moving forward with the first phase on the runway. To suggest that safety wouldn’t be front and centre in that is kind of ridiculous, MPP Glover. I think we should move away from the sensationalization and comments like that because Billy Bishop moves over two million people every single year. And a lot of people rely on that airport. It’s done so in a very safe manner, and nothing would be done outside of those measures.

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Mr. Chris Glover

The airport already operates with exemptions from Transport Canada’s safety standards because it is too close to the schools. There are six schools within what would be called the prime hazard zone, according to Transport Canada. It’s too close to the high-rises. It’s too close to the bird sanctuaries both on the Toronto Islands and Tommy Thompson Park. The risk that you’re increasing—so you’re going from having turboprops land every 20 minutes to having jets, which suck in birds and can cause catastrophic failure of the engines, land every two and a half minutes. Would you commit to not allowing this airport to expand if it violates Transport Canada’s safety standards?

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

Everything we do is with Transport Canada, MPP Glover, and you know that very well. Anything that’s operating today on that island is with the support of Transport Canada. To suggest that they don’t support, that the safety isn’t in place or anything is quite ridiculous because they are the governing authority over it. To suggest this isn’t supported by Transport Canada guidelines is ridiculous. We need to move forward. Let’s not sensationalize this.

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Mr. Chris Glover

I’ll tell you it’s not my statement—

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

There are two million people that use this airport every single year—

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Mr. Chris Glover

I’ll reclaim my time. It is not my statement that this airport operates with exemptions from Transport Canada’s safety’s standards; it is actually a document that we received. An email from an employee of Transport Canada says that this airport does operate with exemptions from safety standards. I’ll pass it over to my colleague.

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The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

MPP Wong-Tam.

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MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam

Thank you, Minister, for your presentation. I was listening very intently. I’m very curious to know, with respect to business case follow-up questioning, you have not confirmed that the province of Ontario has carried out its own business case, yet you have made claims that $8.5 billion of economic output will be derived from the expansion of Billy Bishop airport. How much money from the Ontario taxpayers are you committing to expanding this airport?

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

The only money that we are committing for this airport is the fair-value compensation to the city of Toronto. There were operating dollars that they lost. They will get that and fair market value for the real estate portion that the city gives. No other money will be given to anyone.

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MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam

So where is the business case coming from, then? Because the government of Ontario has not concluded its own business case, and here you are committing money to take over the city’s choice.

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

We’re committing money to the city of Toronto for taking over their role in the tripartite agreement. Any revenue that they lost for the yearly operating that they might have received or any real estate are the only dollars we are committing. The rest of it would be governed as an expansion like, for example, Pearson. It’s a self-funded expansion. Billy Bishop would be a self-funded expansion in their own—

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MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam

Where is that business case?

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The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

Thank you very much. The time is up for the official opposition. We will move to the third party. MPP McMahon.

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Ms. Mary-Margaret McMahon

Good morning, everyone. It’s such a pleasure to be here with you. Thank you very much, Minister, for your presentation. I just want to start with how we got here. We have a lot of things the province needs to deal with: health care, housing, education, transportation—different transportation. I’m just wondering, what was the impetus of the history to get to the Billy Bishop proposed expansion?

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

Thank you very much, MPP. I think we’ve seen in the past and we continue to see a lack of commitment from the city of Toronto to ensure that there’s a long-term vision for Billy Bishop. There are two million people who use this airport every single year. When we look at what’s happening to this province and this country because of the threats we face from south of the border, we need to build a more resilient, self-reliant economy. Projects like this will help make Ontario and Toronto more competitive.

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Ms. Mary-Margaret McMahon

There was a city council meeting in October of 2024, and there was a report that was Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport Runway End Safety Areas (RESA). We know that Billy Bishop airport is in violation of safety protocols and so it was proposed to look at the different types. Three different options for the RESA, 1, 2 and 3: RESA 1 included minimum land mass to meet the regulatory requirement; RESA 2 included that as well as additional taxiway; RESA 3 included additional airside roads, sound barrier and underground utility corridor. From what I’m hearing, RESA 3 would have been the best option, considering that eight vehicles a year pass over that runway, including school buses. That is worrisome for me. RESA 3 was not adopted. Is that why you are here today looking at Billy Bishop?

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

We’re here on Billy Bishop because we think it is too important for us not to ensure that it’s protected for the long term. It’s too important for Toronto, it’s too important for Ontario and it’s too important for Canada to give up this opportunity and not ensure that it is here, from a long-term perspective. We’ve heard countless individuals ask for this airport to be turned into a park, for this airport to cease operations, and that just cannot happen. We have to realize its full potential. It’s an underutilized asset of this city and this country and this province. That is why we are moving forward on plans to build this expansion.

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Ms. Mary-Margaret McMahon

I don’t think it’s as easy as waving a magic wand to accomplish what supposedly the government wants to accomplish; we haven’t seen a plan, so we don’t fully know. I think the reason people like Billy Bishop is it’s a boutique airport—cute and quaint—and it works well as is, although it needs additional safety requirements. But it does not need to be blown up into a major airport, because we’re already spending $3 billion to expand Lester B. Pearson. We have a fantastic major airport there. It’s great to have two. You mentioned cities with two. Chicago does not have a waterfront airport because of what Mayor Daley did in carving the Xs in the runway and saving the waterfront in Chicago to be the glorious sight it is. But you are currently undergoing an expansion at Lester B. Pearson so the capacity will go from 40-something million to 65 million passengers, a $3-billion price tag. We have the UP Express that gets you there. I personally take the TTC: three bucks right across, take the bus, easy-peasy lemon squeezy. So why would you want to shoehorn in a major airport down in one of the most congested intersections in the busiest city in Toronto? Where’s the logic on that?

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

Well, it’s complementary, MPP, and I think that’s exactly what we’re looking at. World-class cities, as I mentioned in my remarks—New York, Chicago, London city—

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Ms. Mary-Margaret McMahon

Not Chicago though.

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

But they do have two airports.

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Ms. Mary-Margaret McMahon

Not on the waterfront.

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

All of these airports serve a significant opportunity for those regions, those areas to continue to attract more business travellers, more tourists. You look at what we’re doing on the waterfront—the revitalization of Ontario Place, the building of the Ontario Line, this new airport—it will significantly change the way that people interact with the city—

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The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

One minute.

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

—on a global stage, and that is why it is so important for us to continue to move forward, especially at a time when we face uncertainty from our greatest trading partner in the past, in the south. We need to build these projects to make ourselves more self-reliant, to be more resilient. That is truly the reason behind the expansion of this project, and also give more opportunities for people in the north to travel, as well.

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Ms. Mary-Margaret McMahon

I just wonder what this government’s obsession is with downtown Toronto, with the waterfront. I know from being on city council with the Premier, who was councillor at the time, there was a proposal for a Ferris wheel. There’s the spa out at Ontario Place; there’s a convention centre. There’s now—well, there was a jet proposed, but now there’s Billy Bishop. I just wonder, don’t you, in your riding, and your other members’ constituents—

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The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

Thank you, MPP McMahon. The time for the third party is over. That concludes the first round. We will move to the second round, and we will start with the government. MPP Sandhu.

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Mr. Amarjot Sandhu

Thank you, Minister, for appearing before the committee and for your presentation. I would like to take this opportunity to first of all thank you and your entire team, and of course the Premier, for making historic investments in Toronto’s infrastructure to tackle gridlock, shorten travel times and also that will drive economic growth for years to come. And especially, thank you for your and the Ministry of Transportation’s investment in expanding the Billy Bishop airport. At the same time, we are also building a state-of-the-art Ontario Place that will attract millions of visitors each year. Along with the Billy Bishop airport, it will not only be a great boost to Ontario’s GDP, but it will definitely help our small and medium-sized businesses because they rely on quick and reliable travel. Can you explain how the project will help those small and medium-sized businesses?

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

Absolutely. Thank you very much for that question. It helps me answer MPP McMahon’s question as well, which is, “What is the benefit to the rest of the province?” It gives travellers across Ontario more options to travel. It hopefully reduces the cost of airfare in this province, because of the individuals that have more competition in the space and opportunity to travel at cheaper costs. But when we look at it from the perspective of small and medium-sized businesses, this will help attract significantly more tourists, significantly more traffic into our cities. And when you have more options to travel—you make it easier, make it cheaper—you provide more competition. It allows for more people to get here. And so, when you look at what is happening on the waterfront right now with Ontario Place, which I know you and your team have been working very closely and hard on to get it out of what it used to be—which was just sitting there idle—into a world-class feature on the waterfront, it’s about driving more people and more tourism into our cities that will then ultimately bring million of dollars of economic output, which supports anyone, from a taxi driver, from a restaurant owner, to an inn owner. Everything would be impacted through significantly increased access to the city of Toronto and to this province. If you’re using that airport for business travel, it’s even that much easier for you to be able to participate in those meetings and have access to Toronto, which is the financial centre of this entire country. So not only will it help you connect internally between the province, but it also helps you connect to the country and to other jurisdictions as well. It would help a lot of people in northern communities. With Billy Bishop, hopefully we can get more access into the north through air travel. That will drive opportunities as we continue to build out the Ring of Fire and more investment into that region. It would hopefully drive more tourism and more individuals to get into those communities, which are hard to get to without—in some circumstances—air travel being a possibility. I think, from that perspective, when we look at what the output is from a GDP perspective into the future, $8.5 billion is a number we can look to that will then help support thousand of new jobs in construction, operational and other small and medium-sized businesses. One of the most exciting parts about this expansion plan is really the full economic potential of what this airport could possibly be.

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Mr. Amarjot Sandhu

How much time do we have, Chair?

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The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

Two minutes.

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Mr. Amarjot Sandhu

Okay, I would like to pass it on to MPP Saunderson.

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The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

MPP Saunderson.

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Mr. Brian Saunderson

Thank you very much, Minister, for coming today and giving us a more fulsome background on this important piece of legislation. You’ve talked about this not just being about Toronto and the economic impact, and I wanted to pivot a bit on that. As a former county council member of Simcoe county, I know the Lake Simcoe Regional Airport is part of the Southern Ontario Airport Network—and it’s about leveraging, as Pearson hits capacity and other airports hit capacity. There are 11 municipal airports that are part of this, Billy Bishop being one of them. I think, as you said, it’s the third-busiest in Ontario behind Pearson and the Ottawa airport. But it seems to me it would be helpful if you could talk a little bit about the higher-level planning. Because we want to leverage our existing infrastructure, and each of these 11 airports plays a critical role in moving people and goods across the province.

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The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

One minute.

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Mr. Brian Saunderson

I know when I was at the table in Simcoe county, they were talking about using that as a cargo airport to shunt cargo away. It’s near the 400 corridor. So we need to be near arterial roads. Of course, Billy Bishop being right in downtown Toronto makes it an obvious choice for expansion. So I’m wondering if you can talk about the thought process and leveraging existing transportation assets across the province.

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

Absolutely, and that’s a great question. I think each airport has its own opportunity. It’s a function of our transportation assets working together collaboratively. How do we utilize the full potential of that? Whether it’s cargo, for example, in Simcoe; whether it’s business travel, tourist travel, in Billy Bishop—what this allows is an integrated approach. And it actually allows for more integrated access in between these airports as well. Right now, we see Pearson that continues to expand, which is amazing and great. They’ve done a wonderful job, but they are at capacity. They continue to build forward, but there is an opportunity for a different type of—

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The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

Minister, the government time is up. We move to the official opposition. MPP Bell, go ahead.

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Ms. Jessica Bell

Thank you, Minister, for coming in. Has the government done an assessment on the health impacts of expanding Billy Bishop airport?

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

We will work with the Toronto Port Authority, as they have in the past, and we will continue to do and account for everything. From a safety regulation, from a health regulation—everything will be in compliance as we move forward. It will be no different from that perspective as we operate with any sort of airport—

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Ms. Jessica Bell

Thank you for answering the question. What I hear, given that you mentioned you are looking at moving ahead with working with the port authority, is that a basic health impact assessment has not yet been done. This is from the National Institutes of Health. They have looked at the impact of ultrafine particles, which is the type of pollutant that will increase with an expansion of jet activity on the waterfront. The National Institutes of Health have found, conclusively, that this kind of pollution can lead, and does lead, to an increase in stroke, heart attack, lung cancer, cognitive decline, dementia, asthma, COPD and premature death. So my question to you is, can the government commit to doing a full environmental assessment, which includes an assessment on the impact of health on nearby waterfront residents, on the impact of the airport expansion, before proceeding?

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

Well, look, as I have said to you in the past—

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Ms. Jessica Bell

It’s a simple yes-or-no question.

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

As I’ve said to you in the past, I want to move away from so much of the sensationalized approach to—

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Ms. Jessica Bell

This isn’t sensationalized at all.

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

It is. Absolutely it is.

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Ms. Jessica Bell

I am quoting the National Institutes of Health.

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

We’re talking about an airport that continues to serve two million people every single day. We’re going to have the highest standards of safety—

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Ms. Jessica Bell

Minister, I asked you a very clear question.

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The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

Colleagues, colleagues—

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Ms. Jessica Bell

Thank you. I’m ceding back my time.

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

We’re going to continue to have—

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The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

Minister, please—

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Ms. Jessica Bell

Minister, I asked you a very—

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The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

MPP Bell—

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Ms. Jessica Bell

Can you commit—

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The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

MPP Bell, the floor is not yours. Colleagues, I mentioned from the beginning: Let’s be polite to each other. Let the witnesses answer the questions. Don’t interrupt them every second, because this is not productive for the entire proceedings of the meeting. So, the floor is yours again.

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Ms. Jessica Bell

Thank you. My final question to you is: All levels of government have made a decision to move ahead with housing construction in the waterfront area. We’re now hearing concerns that the expansion of the airport will lead to a decline in housing construction, including affordable housing construction. Have you done an assessment on the impact of the Billy Bishop expansion on housing starts in that area?

Official source

Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

I am confident—

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Ms. Jessica Bell

Yes or no?

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

I am confident that the expansion of Billy Bishop—everything can work together with respect to that. Whether it’s housing, whether it’s having a world-class airport that supports millions of passengers and billions of dollars in economic output, everything can work together and happen at the same time—

Official source

Ms. Jessica Bell

So what I’m hearing from you is that you haven’t yet done that assessment. I’m going to be handing my time to MPP Mamakwa. Thank you.

Official source

Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

—and I’m very, very confident that that will happen and that will move forward.

Official source

The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

MPP Mamakwa?

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Mr. Sol Mamakwa

How much time do I have?

Official source

The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

Three minutes.

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Mr. Sol Mamakwa

Meegwetch, Minister. I know that several times you spoke about northern communities, and I know the air travel in the north. I know that we can see that the Ministry of Transportation is spending their time and resources defending the expansion of Billy Bishop airport in downtown Toronto. I know, in 2024, the Northern Ontario Aviation Committee was restarted by regional carriers to adjust the increasing regulatory and infrastructure challenges impacting air transportation services in the north. There are members from Nishnawbe Aski Nation, Indigenous Services Canada, NavCan and others. Only two weeks ago, we learned that the Ministry of Transportation, through the remote airports office, walked away from the committee. Why is this government, the management of the remote airports office, walking away from the responsibility to improve air transportation in northern Ontario?

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Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria

Well, look, I can tell you that, as the Minister of Transportation, we’re going to continue to work and ensure that we improve transportation outcomes for those people in the north. Billy Bishop is a part of that plan. One of the most significant beneficiaries of the Billy Bishop expansion would be northern communities, and we’ve seen how many people are supported in the northern communities through Billy Bishop today. That is exactly what we will continue to do and support over the next couple of years as this expansion continues to build out and as the consultation continues to move forward.

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Mr. Sol Mamakwa

Thank you.

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The Acting Chair (Mr. Aris Babikian)

MPP Gilmour.

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MPP Alexa Gilmour

Thank you so much, Minister. I’ve been listening intently to what you’ve said, and my understanding is—when you were asked by my colleagues about the business case—that you were unable to produce one at the time that supports this $8.5-billion economic potential claim. It doesn’t take into consideration the mitigation for the health, for cancer screenings, prevention care.

Official source