“The Big Lie” But Who is Telling It?!

By Ted Nickerson News Flash – November 2021 “The Big Lie Exposed”, a media release by the lobby group Land Over Landings states that the Transport Canada-commissioned study says an airport in Pickering Ontario is not needed by 2036. https://landoverlandings.com/resources/the-big-lie-exposed/ Oh, really!  This pronouncement makes me think of the phrase “If you tell a lie […]

Just-Released FOI Provides Shocking Insight into Pickering Airport Fight

By Mark Brooks There are two completely different interpretations of a government report meant to clarify the future development of Pickering Airport. The first was from government back-bencher MP Jennifer O’Connell whose press release was published by a lobby group only 101 minutes after the report was made public. The MP’s press release stated that […]

An incredulous respond to a question in Parliament on who is leasing the Pickering Lands

By Mark Brooks How deep are the lobbyist hooks into the Pickering Airport Lands? The 9000 acres set aside for the new Pickering Airport and economic development near Toronto is an opportunity to create tens of thousands of jobs, hundreds of million in tax revenue and billions in economic activity. The new airport is expected […]

Critique of the Land Over Landings Research Paper 11 – Indoor Farming and North Pickering

By Ted Nickerson Released in October 2020 by Land Over Landings (LOL), a document titled Research Paper 11 focuses on rebutting comments by local politicians regarding the potential for greenhouses and vertical farming on the federal Pickering Airport Lands.  The comments by local elected officials were made in the context of including agriculture as part […]

A call for Transparency on Government land leases

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 […]

CBC Misses the Big Story

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. […]

O’Connell’s Baffling Misread Of The KPMG Report.

The recent release of a report from consulting firm KPMG, regarding when to build Pickering Airport, has Canadian political observers holding their breath. The report lays out why the Greater Toronto Area needs a new airport, states where it will be built, presents a business plan and when to break ground. The plan for construction […]

Land Over Landings Billion dollar ask of the Canadian tax payer.

The recently released Land Over Landings ( LOL for short)  “AG study”, is billed as a pathway to prosperity.  But whose prosperity, why is LOL making this pitch, at what cost and who is paying?  The why is simple enough, LOL is a lobby group for residents and a handful of tenant farmers privileged to […]

Is Stouffville’s town council funding an airport misinformation war ?

The town of Whitchurch-Stouffville made the national news recently when a bizarre “mind-map” was found on the mayor’s office washroom wall. Another strange event didn’t make the news but left some residents equally annoyed and wondering if there is something in the water at city hall. When the official town sponsored monthly paper called “On […]