In a little more than a year, a bridge linking the mainland to the Toronto City Centre Airport (TCCA) should be in place. For the first time in their history, Torontonians will be able to drive to their own downtown airport.
It's a final chapter worthy of taking the City of Toronto into the millennium and one that ends a 60-year-old, often acrimonious debate over the airport's future.
Down through the years, no one has been more steadfast in promoting expansion of the Toronto City Centre Airport than north-end Toronto Councillor Michael Walker.
While some of his council colleagues have waffled and others have caved in to pressure from the sometimes strident anti-jet set, Walker remained true to form.
Passionately vocal, Walker, in trying to galvanize action on the airport's future once called resisting factions, the “land luddites”.
A classic example of making persistence pay off, it was Walker who cut through the rhetoric at council's December meeting by encouraging local politicians to put true meaning into a vote giving the green light to the link, rather than the mere lip service of supporting it in principle.
Walker's impassioned pleas were instrumental in getting colleagues to support Mayor Mel Lastman's deadlock-breaking decision to back the bridge.
Experts say that of all the downtown airports in the world, Toronto's city centre airport is best situated.
It may have been Swedish airport consultant Bjorn Rotsman who likened Toronto to an "uncut diamond" and a textbook example of a perfect city airport, almost in the middle of the business community.
But it was years ago when Walker coined a phrase about the airport that caught on even abroad, by referring to it as "the unpolished jewel of Toronto's crown".
There are two designs being contemplated for the new bridge. One is a double bascule bridge, which has two sides that open vertically to allow water traffic to pass. The other is a swing bridge. Given its vast potential for Toronto, it could easily be called, ‘Bridge of Dreams'.
The downtown airport is located on the Toronto Islands, just across the harbour's 400-foot-wide Western Channel from the foot of Bathurst Street.
The TCCA's long list of advantages will generate economic activity, particularly once the ferry bottleneck is fixed with a bridge.
The airport is a real winner for travellers with downtown destinations or starting points. It's small, efficient facility offering fast baggage-handling, ticketing and customs clearance, and a walk-through terminal with personal service. And if you don't have to wait for a ferry, the TCCA is just eight minutes from the downtown core.
In fact, a study prepared for the airport found that, on average, a round trip from downtown to TCCA takes about a fifth the time it takes to get to and from Pearson. Time is money for busy business people.
"This is the kind of efficiency and convenience that attracts and holds corporate head offices, and makes it easy for investors and other economic decision-makers to visit our town," says Gary Reid, General Manager and CEO of the Toronto Harbour Commission (THC), which operates the airport.
It's a boost in the economy at the right time for Toronto. A German study found that for every 1,000 passengers using an airport, a job is created. In fact, the Germans call their airports "job machines".
The TCCA's business plan shows that with a bridge, the airport will handle 600,000 passengers annually--that's 600 jobs. But the TCCA isn't just any airport--it's an airport gearing up to cater to a niche market of business travellers. Their activities will generate thousands of additional jobs--many on the waterfront and in the core.
All other systems are go. The airport has been upgrading its facilities in the past few years. The gravel stopways at the ends of the main runway have been paved for extra safety. A million-dollar instrument landing system that is the industry standard has been installed.
Four new airlines have signed commercial agreements to begin service to more than a dozen cities in the northeastern United States, Ontario and Quebec. The first new airline, U.S. Airway Express, began service to Syracuse, N.Y., on Dec. 11.
These are red letter days for T.O. With the TCCA taking flight, new industries will be attracted into the core by utilizing Toronto's front door to the world. The Toronto Harbour Commission can also take credit for bringing the first cruise ships, now making Toronto a port of call.
Toronto City Centre's Airport finally being able to take flight is thanks, in large part, to the passion and persistence of someone with wings of courage of his own, the maverick of Toronto City Council, Michael Walker.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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