Billy Bishop Airport Expansion Huge Mistake

Zeitgeist · 2026-06-20T15:15:44Z

For anyone who has lived or grown up in Toronto, you will know that the city's greatest assets, and the reasons Toronto (formerly called York) was chosen for settlement, are geographical. Toronto has three major rivers (Rouge, Don, and Humber), the Leslie Street Spit, and most importantly, Toronto Island. Toronto has both and inner and outer harbour due to these geographical features. Until the mid-1900's Toronto Island was connected to the mainland, forming a peninsula that made the early city defensible with a fort at the entrance to the inner harbour (Fort York) with a lookout tower and lighthouse at the end of the island on Gibraltar Point.

Today Toronto Island, which is actually a group of islands, provides a local refuge from the dense urbanism of Canada's biggest city. No major city has a car-free cottage country within its municipal boundary. I'd argue that the reason Toronto is the best city on Earth is because of this huge unique asset. Toronto Island was the site of Toronto's first baseball stadium. Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson played there. It has the city's most pristine beaches, especially on Gibraltar Point and Ward's Island. It has a quaint old amusement park and farm with cable cars that is a time capsule back to the late 19th century. It also has actual cottages on Ward's and Algonquin Island. These cannot be expanded beyond their current footprint and no new cottages are allowed to be added. The island once had a town and main street. These were dismantled to form a park and Billy Bishop Airport. Many homes were torn down or moved. Prostesters formed a human chain across the island over half a century ago, so the Ontario government finally relented, and at least some of the original settlement and homes that were moved from the land that became the airport were preserved.

For decades, Toronto Island has maintained a delicate balance between the interests of cottagers on the eastern edge of the islands, tourists and park visitors on Centre Island and at Hanlon's Beach, and the prop planes at Billy Bishop Airport, which are a mix of private and commercial planes. Some of these are already quite large and on busy routes to major North American cities. Though these planes can be noisy and encroach upon the natural ambiance, most Torontonians are satisfied with the current balance. However, a further expansion of the airport, which the Ontario Ford government is determined to implement, will destroy that balance by adding larger commercial jets, extending the runways, and turning Billy Bishop into a transportation hub that will spoil the beaches and park atmosphere that millions enjoy. This expansion is being promoted in the context of a major expansion of Pearson Airport, which has a rail link right downtown; the construction of a high-speed rail line between Toronto and Quebec City; and the restoration of the mouth of the Don River, which cost over a billion dollars and has opened up new areas for sustatinable vibrant communities in the former industrial lands of Toronto's Port Lands, which will now likely have to scale back some important city-building projects to facilitate the flight paths of jets at an expanded airport.

On this one major issue, Ford has seriously missed the mark. Generally he has been a moderate and successful Premier of Ontario, but he risks blowing his legacy by killing the goose that lays the golden egg and makes Toronto so special. Neither New York nor Chicago have anything like it. Expanding Billy Bishop will make Toronto's Harbourfront and Toronto Island less attractive. It will reduce the amount of water surface area in the inner harbour, which is treasured by rowers, sailors, and visitors. Ford has already demolished the park on Ontario Place, a significant portion of which will be turned over to a private spa in a controversial rebuild. Do not expand Billy Bishop Airport. It's a stupid, short-sighted move that diminishes the qualities that make Toronto so great.