The Ontario government says it is planning to take over part of a small park by the city’s waterfront as part of its plans to expand Billy Bishop Airport.
In a statement Thursday, the province said one of the parcels of land under consideration includes approximately one-third of Little Norway Park at Queen’s Quay West and the foot of Bathurst Street.
“For us, it’s about Billy Bishop. It’s about how do we expand it so consumers can have more options to travel,” Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said. “How do we get more access to our remote communities in the north? How do we ensure that there’s more competition in the marketplace. That’s what this is aimed at doing.”
Sarkaria introduced a bill at Queen’s park Thursday to move forward with the changes around the airport.
The province said in its release that it will work with the Toronto Port Authority and the City of Toronto “to mitigate any potential impact on the park resulting from the airport’s future expansion.”
The 2.4-hectare park includes a baseball diamond, wading pool, children’s playground and gardens. Its north end sits adjacent to a busy section of the Martin Goodman Trail – a popular walking, running and cycling trail. There are a number of homes that border the park to the west.
Little Norway Park is named after its historic function as a pilot training centre for the Norwegian Air Force during the Second World War.
Sarkaria’s office said it was necessary to include a third of the park in the land parcel the province is taking over, but that the province is planning to maintain the land as a park and that no homes will be included in the expropriated lands.
Sarkaria did not say how long the expended runway will be.
But he said the province will “protect for future expansion that doesn’t inhibit the flight path.”
Chow vows to fight takeover of park
The bill Thursday sparked a quick reaction from Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, who said she’ll be moving a motion for council to fight the takeover.
“Unilaterally taking city land is not acceptable,” Chow said in a release Thursday afternoon. “The Provincial Government has ignored the City of Toronto’s demand to be at the table on the future of the waterfront. This is yet another example of the provincial overreach that has become the norm.
“The province is about to uproot a complete community, take our land, and pave over Little Norway Park.”
The Ford government announced plans several weeks ago to declare the lands around Billy Bishop airport a “special economic zone,” allowing it to bypass regular rules and regulations. It also said that it would be taking over the city’s part in the tripartite agreement that governs the airport. The federal government and the Toronto Port Authority, which is a federal agency, are the ither two parties in the agreement.
The province said it was taking the move in order to expand the runway to allow jets and create more transit options for people.
Chow said she plans to ask the federal government to block the takeover.
