More on $5,000 fines with every noise breach
Some clarity: the Toronto Port Authority is required to levy a $5,000 fine (in 1985 dollars) for every breach of the noise limits. There is no discretion.
The fact that it doesn't has a lot to do, we think, with the TPA's perception that the City of Toronto, which has the authority to insist, won't.
Our communities' task is to find the most effective way to pressure the City and the TPA to finally act on these breaches. If they do, Porter will have no choice but to move to Pearson, where it belongs.
There are no specified limits on the number of flights permitted. What controls exist are derived from the requirement that the NEF Contours contained in the Tripartite Agreement not be breached. (NEF Contours are noise limits that take into account both frequency and intensity of noise.)
The current assumptions, based on a 1990 NEF Contour study that we've never seen, but which, we understand, did not use Q400 noise data, suggest that up to a 167 commercial flights per day (landings and takeoffs) would not result in a breach of the NEF contours. Porter has been allocated 120 of those "slots" and is only using about 60 now, we are told.
In response to a request from CommunityAIR, the City last December delivered notice to Transport Canada requiring that a new NEF Contour study be carried out (the City has the right to require such a study annually, under the Tripartite Agreement).
It's three months since the City's notice, and Transport Canada is just now looking to hire a consultant to conduct the study (it no longer has the capacity to do so internally).
We don't have a lot of confidence that that study will be conducted expeditiously, or that it will disclose anything helpful. But it might, and CommunityAIR is therefore in the process of retaining its own noise expert to both keep an eye on the Transport Canada study, and assist us in identifying areas where we can be most effective in dealing with the airport's noise.
We know that last summer's noise was awful for many residents and harbourfront users. With Porter's aggressive expansion, if nothing's done, it will be far worse this summer.
Brian Iler
Chair, CommunityAIR
The fact that it doesn't has a lot to do, we think, with the TPA's perception that the City of Toronto, which has the authority to insist, won't.
Our communities' task is to find the most effective way to pressure the City and the TPA to finally act on these breaches. If they do, Porter will have no choice but to move to Pearson, where it belongs.
There are no specified limits on the number of flights permitted. What controls exist are derived from the requirement that the NEF Contours contained in the Tripartite Agreement not be breached. (NEF Contours are noise limits that take into account both frequency and intensity of noise.)
The current assumptions, based on a 1990 NEF Contour study that we've never seen, but which, we understand, did not use Q400 noise data, suggest that up to a 167 commercial flights per day (landings and takeoffs) would not result in a breach of the NEF contours. Porter has been allocated 120 of those "slots" and is only using about 60 now, we are told.
In response to a request from CommunityAIR, the City last December delivered notice to Transport Canada requiring that a new NEF Contour study be carried out (the City has the right to require such a study annually, under the Tripartite Agreement).
It's three months since the City's notice, and Transport Canada is just now looking to hire a consultant to conduct the study (it no longer has the capacity to do so internally).
We don't have a lot of confidence that that study will be conducted expeditiously, or that it will disclose anything helpful. But it might, and CommunityAIR is therefore in the process of retaining its own noise expert to both keep an eye on the Transport Canada study, and assist us in identifying areas where we can be most effective in dealing with the airport's noise.
We know that last summer's noise was awful for many residents and harbourfront users. With Porter's aggressive expansion, if nothing's done, it will be far worse this summer.
Brian Iler
Chair, CommunityAIR
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