Volunteers communicating the need for Pickering Airport
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 […]
By Ted Nickerson This is the first of three-part series on the deeper meaning of the fight over the development of Pickering airport. The events of the last few weeks, (the City of Pickering motion to rescind support for an airport / the Region’s Draft Official Plan Statutory Public meeting) got me wondering about the […]
It has become fashionable for “Headline Environmentalists” to believe that climate change can be fought with political decrees opposing growth. In Pickering, two new councilors’ put forward just such a motion, in this case opposing a new airport on federal land, using misleading information from a lobby group. Luckily for us and them, the majority […]
By Mark Brooks It is late Monday night, and I am in the city of Pickering council chambers about to speak at a council meeting. In among the usual city issues is buried a radical proposition added into the agenda at the last moment the previous Thursday. It is replete with misinformation on aviation from […]
By Mark Brooks The debate around the development of Pickering Airport is often focused on the business case, the demographics of growth and the environment. What about the moral case? What opportunities are we forgoing, and what future problems are we creating for our children, if we fail to build a new airport in Pickering? Is it […]
By Mark Brooks The recent announcement of Cadillac Fairview’s (CF) purchase of a 100% stake in Toronto Buttonville Airport has important implications for the development of an aerotropolis in nearby Pickering. Buttonville airport, a busy GA (General Aviation) and utility airport, sits on a 169-acre property in the City of Markham. Considered a prime site […]
By Ted Nickerson and Mark Brooks There’s an old joke about requiring politicians to wear a NASCAR like uniforms that tell us who their sponsors are. In Canada we like to think we are above such nonsense thanks to a ban on corporate donations. But this is no defense against special interest groups, political action […]
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 and Ted Nickerson On November 18, 2020, the Urban Land Institute (ULI) held a virtual event called “Transform Pickering: Big Moves in the GTA’s Frontier City”. Moderated by Emma Ward (Bousfield Inc), the session provided a forum for Dave Ryan, Mayor City of Pickering, assisted by Paula Bustard, Fiaz Jadoon, and Johan Van’t Hof, to present key strategic projects and the long-term vision that will fundamentally transform the City of Pickering. The City’s vision […]
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 […]
