$45-million tunnel to the Island Airport one step closer to reality
The Island Airport is something this city hates to love—and boy, does Porter know it. Between the free cappuccinos and the in-flight hooch, the young, scrappy and successful airline has served more than one million passengers in the past year. The biggest hassle for those clients at the moment? The inner harbour with the oh-so-sluggish ferry. The Toronto Port Authority wants to change that with a tunnel to the airport, and the project just passed one of the hurdles on its way to putting shovels in the ground.
So says the Toronto Star:
A controversial project to create a pedestrian tunnel to the island airport won’t hurt the environment, according to an independent report commissioned by the Toronto Port Authority.
The draft environmental assessment states there will be “no permanent significant environmental effects” and “minimal” construction impacts from digging a 123-metre tunnel from Eireann Quay at the bottom of Bathurst St. to the Billy Bishop island airport.
The draft report brings the port authority a step closer to the planned $45 million tunnel, for which construction is expected to start in 2011.
The biggest political hurdle to all this was probably David Miller, the outgoing mayor. Rob Ford, on the other hand, told the National Post he was “absolutely” in favour of a fixed link back in September. The Island gave Ford his lowest share of the vote of anywhere in Toronto and is represented by Ford’s nemesis, Adam Vaughan. But Ford’s probably not being crassly political when he supports a tunnel; he’s just being his usual pro-business self.
And business is only going to get bigger, with Porter expanding its number of routes and Air Canada and Continental both coming to the island next year. Port Authority critics are slamming the environmental assessment as basically bought and paid for, and warning about more flights, noise and pollution from the airport. Toronto travellers have heard all that and said, “Can we have some more?”
• Environmental assessment okays tunnel to island airport [Toronto Star]
• Island airport tunnel fight heats up [Toronto Sun]
• Proposed island airport tunnel clears a hurdle [Globe and Mail]
• Port Authority tries to trick the public: CommunityAIR [The Bulletin]
(Image: Still The Oldie, from the Toronto Life Flickr pool)
Despite the objections of Islanders, the city both wants and needs this.
The truth of the matter is (and is easily substantiated by facts, figures and projections that all candidates could agree on, if nothing else, during the Mayoral election) that transportation/traffic issue will be the number one limiting factor in terms of Toronto’s growth over the next 50 years.
Having air tansit hubs at either end of the city (and don’t even get me started on Buttonville or the fact that Parc Downsview Park and the DND along with Bombardier have no plans to open Downsview to the public) just makes sense.
I am not really opposed to the island airport, but the people of Toronto (and Canada) should know how deeply they are being skimmed by the TPA (Toronto Port Authority) and Porter.
Porter owes the city MILLIONS in back rent/property tax. Porter will probably fail as a business and the city will never recoup the money.
The pedestrian tunnel is another pork-barrel project promoted by the TPA. The money to build it is coming from the federal government (regardless of how the TPA tries to paint it), and as it is a pedestrian tunnel – the ferry will need to continue to run anyway. This project might really be about lining the pockets of the TPA’s contractors.
Say yes to the Island Airport, but say no to the TPA. They are a federally appointed corporation and they have no accountability to the people or government of Toronto and should not be left in a position to make decisions about our waterfront and our money.
$45 MILLION CAN BUY MANY UP TO DATE BOATS ,,,THERE ARE MANY NEWER FERRY BOATS AROUND THE WORLD FOR SALE AT GIVE AWAY PRICES..BRITISH COLUMBIA SOLD $800 MILLION WORTH OF FAST FERRYS FOR $20 MILLION …WHICH WAS A CRIME…ARE THEY EXPECTING THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE A DAY OR WHAT..TUNNEL IS FAR TO AHEAD OF ITS TIME …THIS IS NOT LIKE THE SIZE OF VANCOUVER ISLAND…LIVE WITH THE BOATS..