June 30, 2003
It took 50 years, but Toronto Island airport expansion got the green light on June 24.
The final scene in the council chamber led to a 28 to 12 councillor vote in favour of a deal that clears the way for a bridge to the airport.
In the final scene, Community AIR 'consultant' Allan Sparrow had reverted back to form: Sparrow, the hard-line community activist, who always springs into action during municipal election year. Community AIR is the group that has campaigned non-stop against a bridge to the airport. Before reinventing himself as a consultant, Sparrow ran The Badger, a newspaper/newsletter that is official voice of the NDP caucus.
It didn’t take long for Sparrow to swing back into activist mode: "You will see a real common coalition coming forward in this election to get rid of this council that is fully dominated by backroom interests," he said.
The stench of sour grapes was discernible in the chamber, with councillors like Pam McConnell vowing to throw herself in front of the bulldozers.
The 28-12 vote galvanized mayoralty candidate Coun. David Miller to promise a reversal of the decision after November’s municipal election, and to enshrine that promise as a main campaign plank. Sparrow and company have already swung their support behind the NDP candidate.
Construction on the long-awaited bridge begins as early as of the end of next month, when McConnell will be out on the municipal campaign hustings soliciting votes. Nor is there any guarantee that Miller will get himself elected as mayor.
Under the settlement with the Toronto Port Authority, which was suing the city for $1 billion, the city will pay out $48.6 million. Terms also allow the city to keep control of 260 hectares of port-area land transferred to it in the 1990s.
Although you wouldn’t know it from certain councillor histrionics on June 24, council had already approved the bridge last November, but could not go ahead until the lawsuit was settled.
TPA’s lawsuit also proved something important. You can, with the right lawyers, beat city hall.
"I think we can now move ahead," said Henry Pankratz, chair of the port authority, a federal agency that replaced the Toronto Harbour Commission in running the island airport, port operations, and outer harbour marina.
Robert Deluce, a businessman demonized by Sparrow and company, was pleased with council’s decision.
Deluce, who never gave up on his vision of starting a new airline next April that would fly from the island airport to 17 Canadian and U.S. destinations, will now push ahead with his plans, despite current problems in the airline industry. The Deluce goal for the airport is an annual passenger volume of 900,000 within three years.
"I’ve been in the airline business for over 30 years. It goes up, it goes down," he said.
"What remains constant is people will have to travel, and they’re looking for an alternative to Pearson (International Airport)."
Last, but not least, in the end of the 50-year-old battle over what some call "our jewel of an airport" is that the bridge making it all happen ends an era, an era of guaranteed exclusivity for Toronto Islanders.
The bridge is long last physical proof that Toronto Island and environs do not belong to NDP activists, but to all of the people of the City of Toronto.