Volunteers communicating the need for Pickering Airport
Written by Mark Brooks The recently released KPMG ASA report states that development of Pickering Airport is now viable, and suggests breaking ground on a new industrial airport in 2026. The suggestion is to start with a minimal footprint that can be expanded as needed. The new airport will be built on thousands of acres […]
By Mark Brooks In response to a Freedom of Information request, we have received the list of leaseholders for the Pickering lands retained for economic development, including an airport. A big thank you and shout–out to Transport Canada for doing what they could on this politically–charged topic. Although heavily redacted, the response provides enough information […]
Mark Brooks, Sept 17, 2020 In 2029, Pickering Airport will be open. What type of aircraft will call it home? To answer that question, we need to understand two of the forces driving the need for the new airport. One is the economic freedom behind the success of the municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area, the immigration it attracts and […]
by Mark Brooks A citizen, worried that the pandemic is being used as cover to reward insiders, writes a letter to his Liberal MP. The reply he received was laced with misinformation and should worry every Canadian. It highlights the lack of leadership and wishful thinking now delaying the development of new infrastructure in Canada. In […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
