We at CommunityAIR have been pressing the City, and Transport Canada, for some years to establish flight paths for helicopters flying out of the Island Airport - for two reasons:

1. Hopefully, the flight paths wil keep helicopters further away from residential and recreational areas, as they are incredibly noisy.

2. Once flight paths are specified, the tripartite agreement states that their noise HAS to be counted in calculating the actual Noise Exposure Forecast (NEF).

The noise limits in the tripartite agreement are NEF Contours - if actual NEF exceeds those limits, the tripartite agreement is breached and the City can start taking action to shut the airport down.

Buried deep in the TPA noise consultant's report to the community advisory committee last week, was this:

"Transport Canada, Nav Canada, and the TPA held discussions during the first half of 2009. It wa agreed to publish a procedure to specify that established flight paths must be used by all [helicopters] operating to and from the TPA."

We know that Porter's investors in 2005 sought comfort that noise limits at the Island Airport permitted the volume of Porter traffic they were hoping for. The report they received, was prepared by Pryde Schropp and dated October 25, 2005. We have obtained a copy of that report.

It did not take helicopter noise into account.

With helicopter flight paths now specified, to ensure the airport's noise does not exceed the NEF contour limit, this means either that that the frequency of Porter flights will have to be reduced from the level its investors were counting on, or helicopters will have to find another location to fly out of.

Either way, this is a huge win for our communities!

Brian Iler, chair
CommunityAIR