Volunteers communicating the need for Pickering Airport
By Mark Brooks A proposed tax on new small aircraft in the 2021 Canadian federal budget is a shocker. The new tax could not come at a worse time as GA (General Aviation) pilots, businesses and entrepreneurs look to recover from the pandemic and re-equip with new safer and more efficient greener aircraft. What is […]
By Mark Brooks Did Jennifer O’Connell, Member of Parliament for Pickering—Uxbridge, or someone on her staff, give lobbyists and other interested parties a sneak peek at a then-confidential Transport Canada report? The million-dollar consultant’s report, called the Pickering Lands Aviation Sector Analysis (ASA for short), suggests breaking ground on the new airport in 2026, building in stages from […]
By Ted Nickerson There have been articles recently in the Toronto Star (February 18 and 26, 2021) reporting on a residential development proposal for north Markham. The City of Markham had asked the province to issue a Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) to permit the development to proceed, while residents strongly oppose the development. Markham MZO […]
By Mark Brooks Our planet is on fire and the status quo just doesn’t cut it. Although aviation produces only 2.5% of global carbon emissions, its role as the lynchpin of the global economy has made it a symbol of a net-zero carbon future. Two starkly different visions of that future present opposing paths […]
A farmer asks his landlord to put up a No Trespassing sign and remove an unwanted structure. Not usually a news event heard across the country. But this time the flash point was as Canadian as it gets, a pond being used as a natural skating ring by local children in the middle of a […]
by Mark Brooks Have you heard about the Eastern Toronto Regions new Aerotropolis? It will create 150,000 jobs, homes for 120,000 people and enable our net zero carbon emissions goals. The project has been decades in the making and will take years to finish. It has the support of five local city government’s and the […]
By Ted Nickerson and Mark Brooks On October 10, 2020, Friends of Pickering Airport posted a report, ”Who is Leasing the Pickering Airport Lands?”, looking at the number, type and lessees of the Pickering Airport lands that have been retained for economic development including an airport. The new airport will be adjacent to the Rouge […]
By Mark Brooks In October, 2020, the Member of Parliament for Pickering-Uxbridge, Jennifer O’Connell, sponsored an E-Petition in the House of Commons calling on the federal government to cancel a new airport being planned in North Pickering. It called for the existing leases on a billion-dollar government land parcel to be extended for decades to […]
By Mark Brooks “When is a park not a park?” When it is leased out at fire sale rates to a chosen few corporations and individuals. This is a common problem and source of corruption with government-owned land in some parts of the world, but could it happen in Canada? A Government MP may be […]
By Mark Brooks Today, five of the six local municipal governments, including the city of Pickering, support building a new airport and economic development zone. But aviation is a federal jurisdiction and one of the local Members of Parliament, Jennifer O’Connell, is opposed. The new airport, to be built on land already set aside for it […]
