Volunteers communicating the need for Pickering Airport
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 […]
By: Mark Brooks, Phil Lightstone. The long-awaited Pickering Lands Aviation Sector Analysis (the “KPMG report”) has recently been released and pro airport supporters are celebrating. The report goes beyond just reaffirming the need for a new airport in Pickering to support the Greater Toronto Area. It clarifies when and in what form the new airport should be developed. […]
The Canadian Owners and Pilots Association (COPA) is featuring an article from The Friends of Pickering Airport ( a sub group of COPA flight 44) in the April edition. Great timing as the just released KPMG report has recommended a path to building out Pickering Airport. The 491 page KPMG report is suggestion building an […]
A big change is under way in the world of commercial aviation. As of January 1st, 2020, all international aviation growth is going carbon neutral. Domestic Canadian aviation will follow step. For Pickering Airport, a new international airport to be built just east of Toronto, it means that all of its flights can be carbon […]
by Ted Nickerson Trees and aviation do not normally need each other, but trees could soon be a contributor to developing a low-carbon / carbon-neutral Pickering Airport. In 2017, Canada’s aviation emissions accounted for 21 megatonnes (1 megatonne = 1 million metric tonnes) or 3% of total emissions, with domestic air travel accounting for 1%, […]
