A large, polluting airport within two kilometres of the city downtown will ruin the quality of life of all Torontonians.

Airport flightpaths cross over or near two several communties, boat clubs, parks, nature preserves, areas for recreational boating, the city centre, music and art parks.

• Porter Airlines now has six aircraft. The company plans to increase its fleet to 20 planes. This is a nearly four times increase, bringing nearly four times the pollution, nearly four times the noise, nearly four times the traffic and nearly four times the problems.
  
  
• Billions of public- and private-sector dollars are being invested on the waterfront. One hundred thousand people will live on the waterfront and another 100,000 will work there when the project is completed. A busy airport with hundreds of daily flights is incompatible with redevelopment.
  
  
• The island airport is an unsafe, inadequate facility. The runways are too short, the stopways are inadequate, bird strikes are common, and “pilot cautions” list several hazards from high rise buildings and smoke stacks around the airport.
  
  
• Short-haul flights cause more pollution than any other form of travel. A flight from Toronto to Ottawa by a Porter Q400 releases 2,865 kilograms of CO2. Car traffic generated by the airport is bringing more air pollution to the nearby neighbourhoods.
  
  
• Bombardier Q400 airplanes such as those used at the island airport have had serious safety problems. Scandinavian Airways (SAS) has permanently grounded all of its Q400s. Porter has had two incidents of landing-gear problems with its planes.
  
  
• Millions of dollars of government subsidies have gone to Bombardier, the Toronto Port Authority and the island airport. Porter Airlines has received $20 million from the federal government. Why are the taxpayers subsidizing a polluting airport and private companies?
  
  
• High-speed trains must replace short haul flights along the Toronto/Ottawa/Montreal corridor to reduce air pollution, eliminate safety problems and move people efficiently.
  
  
• Porter Airlines should relocate to an airport where it can adequately serve its customers and reduce pollution in the high-density downtown neighbourhoods. Lands currently used by the airport should then be turned over to more environmentally friendly purposes.
  
  
• The 215 acres of land occupied by the island airport provide a unique opportunity to create exciting parks and public facilities accessible to millions of people.
  
  
• The expanded island airport has been imposed by the Toronto Port Authority against the wishes of the majority of the people of Toronto.

You will note that we have used the term “Toronto Island Airport,” the name by which it was known until the port authority renamed it the “Toronto City Centre Airport” in an attempt to down play its location in Toronto’s revered island park.