According to Mapquest and my own observations, Pearson 15L/32R measures about as far from the Malton community as Toronto City Center Airport's main runway measures from the Toronto waterfront community. Certainly, two schools, on in Malton (the aptly named "Our Lady of the Airways" and one in Rexdale, sit pretty directly on the flight paths for this runways.

In other ways, however, you cannot compare the impact of Pearson and City Centre Airports. One hundred and fifty thousand people live within an area of more intense noise than Toronto City Centre Airport ever produces. I have stood outside the Middle School in Malton and listened to the sound of Pearson as an ever-present thunder; stood outside community centres in Rexdale and measured noise spikes that exceed anything Toronto City Centre Airport produces. The approach paths to Pearson go over land, affecting communities as far afield as Thorncliffe in the East on the Don River. To argue that Toronto City Centre Airport somehow affects more people than Pearson International just doesn't fit with any of the facts.

BTW, Ms. Christensen, I expect you will enjoy St. John's very much. I remember it as a beautiful city and a striking harbour; it does have a better waterfront than Toronto.

John Spragge