MEGATOR – Toronto in the year 2100

Do you remember the future? Flying cars, high-speed trains, and robots servicing our every whim?   The Greater Golden Horseshoe or just the “Toronto Region” to the rest of the world, has been Canadas golden child of growth since the 1970s.  For decades the region has been an unstoppable economic engine fueled by immigration, industry, and […]

Development plan with new Airport Wins vote 20 to 6 at Durham Region

  May 17th, 2023, a landslide vote in the Durham Region council chambers approves of the new Pickering airport’s important role in the region’s economic development. The new airport is part of the region’s Official Plan, a plan that is the culmination of years of work completed through the Envision Durham process, the Municipal Comprehensive Review of Durham’s […]

Monday Night BANANA Politics in Pickering

  Did the April 24th, 2023 Pickering City council meeting go absolutely BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone) over a motion playing municipal politics with a federally mandated new airport? While the city has little control over if and when the airport is built, that did not stop two local councilors from putting forth […]

A Letter from the President of the Buttonville Flying Club.

Pickering Airport is One Step Closer to Reality By: David Sprague, President Buttonville Flying Club April 22, 2023 Toronto: Recently, members of the Buttonville Flying Club attended a series of publicly held municipal planning meetings.  On behalf of the 200 plus members of the Buttonville Flying Club, part of the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association, […]

Final Pickering Airport Capacity Study Airborne Again!

The need for a new airport in Pickering is back under the magnifying glass of Transport Canada in what could be its final needs assessment. Launched, then withdrawn, the study is now back on. Nothing it seems can stop the final Pickering airport study from getting airborne. The Minister of Transport himself, the Honourable Omar […]

Can Aristotle help us understand recent Pickering Airport media coverage?

The new Pickering airport is a critical part of Canada’s future economic and aviation infrastructure.  Yet the stories recently appearing in our local press rarely mention this. They do not quote aviation or business organizations and rarely touch on the benefits of the airport.  Instead, they are covering the topic with a political focus. Why […]

Why do Advanced Industries Locate Near Airports?

By Mark Brooks Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson airport is the center of an advanced industrial zone that is at the forefront of the reindustrialization of Canada. The PEZ (Pearson Economic Zone) is now Canada’s second largest employment zone, employing 400,000 people and contributing $53 billion to Ontario’s economy. But why, even with land prices soaring, […]

Philosophically Speaking…#3: A Pyrrhic Victory?

by Ted Nickerson The pending decision by Pickering Council is not going to change the status of the Federal Pickering lands. The above statement is not meant to diminish the importance of the pending decision, nor to be critical of the motion’s proponents.  It just means that the motion, if successful, will not achieve what […]

Philosophically Speaking…#2: Where’s the Business Case?

By Ted Nickerson Building on my first “Philosophically Speaking” posting, I think the topic of the business case for the current and future use of the Federal Pickering lands deserves comment.   I offer several perspectives on this.  Is there a business case for farming, or for an airport?  Where are they?  What does the North […]