Billy Bishop Airport Update - The Inevitable Looms

If you live near the waterfront, the Toronto Islands, or anywhere in downtown Toronto, what is happening right now at Billy Bishop Airport should alarm you. This is not a hypothetical future problem. The legislation has passed. The land grab has begun. And the federal consultation that could still stop it closes on July 24. That is 18 days from now.

What Doug Ford Has Already Done

In March 2026, Premier Ford declared Billy Bishop a special economic zone under Bill 5, giving the province the power to override planning and environmental laws to push ahead with expansion. Then, on May 28, the province passed Bill 110, the Building Billy Bishop Airport Act, 2026. This law strips the City of Toronto of its role in the Tripartite Agreement that has governed the airport for decades, hands that power to Queens Park, and allows the province to take ownership of city-owned lands on the Toronto Islands and in Bathurst Quay.

Mayor Olivia Chow called it a land grab. Former Toronto mayor and federal cabinet minister David Crombie appeared before a legislative committee and said it plainly: please withdraw this bill, it will wreck the waterfront. He was ignored.

The province claims the expansion will generate $8.5 billion in annual economic benefits by 2050. Weeks after first making that claim, neither the province nor the Toronto Port Authority had produced a single piece of evidence to back it up. No completed study. No business case. Just a number, repeated as fact.

The Numbers Do Not Add Up

The Toronto Port Authority has put the cost of expansion at up to $5 billion, to be funded entirely by traveller fees with no taxpayer money involved. Aviation experts say that claim borders on fantasy.

In 2025, Billy Bishop brought in $52.6 million in total fee revenue. After operating costs, net income was $16.9 million. John Gradek, a faculty lecturer in aviation management at McGill University, reviewed the financials and was blunt: the project is simply not viable.

And here is the detail that makes the whole project even harder to justify: passenger numbers at Billy Bishop are going in the wrong direction. In 2024, 2 million people flew through the airport. In 2025, that dropped to 1.7 million. The province is betting $5 billion on an airport that fewer and fewer people are currently choosing to use.

What Is Actually at Stake

Councillor Dianne Saxe, who represents Ward 11, has been fighting this for years. At a recent town hall she called the expansion devastatingly bad for the downtown, the waterfront, and the people who live there.

She pointed to an environmental assessment done nine years ago, using conservative assumptions about flight numbers with no accounting for increased road traffic or parking. Even that study, with all its underestimates, found significant increases in cancer risk and other health problems for people living nearby, plus major economic losses from reduced access to waterfront parks and recreation.

Beyond the health impacts, the physical consequences of this expansion would be felt across the entire city:

•       Flight paths from a lengthened runway could interfere with approximately 94,000 units of new housing currently in development in the Port Lands area.

•       Expanded jet traffic would bring significantly more air and noise pollution to a densely populated urban waterfront.

•       The Toronto Islands, Little Norway Park, and the trail and beach network would be permanently changed.

•       Margaret Atwood, Bob Rae, David Suzuki, and dozens of other prominent Canadians have signed an open letter to Prime Minister Carney urging him to reject the plan without a transparent business case and a full environmental accounting.

The Federal Government Is the Last Line of Defence

Ford has taken away the city's legal authority. That is done. But the federal government still controls aviation regulation and remains a party to the Tripartite Agreement. Ottawa can stop this.

Prime Minister Carney has so far called the expansion a very interesting vision while saying he has personally not formed an opinion on it. That is a notable contrast to Ford, who told reporters in March that he already had the federal government's support. One of them is not being straight with us.

Councillor Saxe was clear at her town hall: fill out the survey if you want, but what actually moves federal politicians is hearing directly from constituents. If you are in Ward 11, that means contacting MP Dr. Daniel Martin. If you know people in other downtown ridings, those Liberal MPs need to hear from their communities too. This is the moment to stop an impending failure.

Take Action Before July 24

The federal public consultation closes July 24, 2026. The anonymous online survey takes about 8 minutes to complete.

Fill out the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/PFJSW2X

Full consultation page: Transport Canada consultation page

Contact your MP: Dr. Daniel Martin, MP for University-Rosedale