Volunteers communicating the need for Pickering Airport
By Mark Brooks Passenger aviation is now in the early stages of restarting from its COVID-19-induced shutdown. As the pandemic continues to turn the world upside down, airports and airlines are grappling with the new normal. How can they safely provide critical transportation services, moving both people and goods, to keep the economy going? How […]
By Ted Nickerson The future of long distant transportation in Canada is aviation. But thanks to the flight-shaming movement, you may have been led to believe that there is no place for aviation in a carbon neutral future. That’s not true. Sparked by recent comments from the “Stop Flying” proponents seeking to leverage the impact […]
It reads like a B-movie script for a government scandal. A billion dollars in government land leased out to a select few, mostly unknown, insiders well below market rates. Brave local mayors and town councils harassed at every turn as they fight to get the attention of a distant uncaring federal government. The local citizen […]
By Ted Nickerson In 2019, major international aviation agencies (ICAO, IATA) predicted that global passenger volumes would double by 2037. Annual passenger growth had been healthy, and all looked well. That changed in early 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Cities, regions, and even countries went into lock-down. Borders closed. Aviation commercial passenger volumes crashed. […]
What happens when a young reporter from the City meets a slick well-practiced “Rural” lobby group hunting for cheap leases on a Billion dollars of government land? It’s a classic scene with all the right virtue signalling of farming, the environment, and food security. A warm fuzzy setup covering the warts of a Big Money ask. […]
Toronto’s Housing inequalities are stunning and well known. Few would disagree that, thanks to decades of constant population growth, the Greater Toronto Area is in the worst housing crisis in its history. Yet paradoxically there are neighborhoods in downtown Toronto that have fewer people in them than they did 20 years ago thanks to upsizing […]
By: Phil Lightstone, Mark Brooks The havoc created by COVID-19 has affected all elements of the Canadian economy. While many Canadians languish in self-imposed isolation, the Canadian economy has slowed down. The pre-pandemic shutdown of a major employer, the General Motors plant, has made Durham region especially vulnerable. But Durham can have a unique solution to restarting its […]
The Study commissioned by Transport Canada, Pickering Lands Aviation Sector Analysis, concludes that through “modest expansions in aircraft apron and air terminal facilities”, Pickering Airport’s passenger capacity is not needed before 2036. The Study uses the phrase “modest expansions” to describe billions of dollars of additional aviation facilities that are stunning in both scope and cost. All […]
On March 5, 2020, Transport Canada released the Pickering Lands Aviation Sector Analysis (the Study). It was much awaited, and hopefully will be the definitive study on the need for and timing of a new commercial airport in Pickering, Ontario. Its message is simply, “The question is now when, not if, a new airport should be built”. […]
Right now the Canadian economy is crashing under the fear and anxiety created by a global pandemic. Under today’s conditions, communal vehicles – buses, trains and planes – are breeding grounds for the virus. Until today, the number one method of communal travel between provinces and internationally was air travel. Post-event, how will the pandemic change […]
