CommunityAIR press release on pedestrian tunnel

 

CommunityAIR - devoted to restoring the lands and harbour now occupied by the Toronto Island airport to park, recreation, and cultural uses. E-mail info@communityair.org Web Site www.communityair.org Address PO Box 81057, 47B Harbour Square, Toronto M5J 2RO

Press Release

For Immediate Release Tuesday, August 24, 2009

Contact: Brian Iler, Chair

 

Island Airport Tunnel - the Wrong Priority for Toronto

"This is the wrong way to spend scarce public dollars" Brian Iler, chair of CommunityAIR said today. "Any real list of priorities for our city’s public investment includes public transit, and meeting the basic needs of Torontonians. This tunnel isn’t close to making that list."

"This is all about the Harper government, and its majority on the TPA board, throwing its weight around to help Porter. The TPA has no accountability to the people of Toronto, who want their tax dollars spent on the City’s priorities, not Mr. Deluce’s." he continued.

Porter has already been the recipient of millions of tax dollars – from the $20 million given as compensation for not being able to start an airline when the bridge was cancelled, to the $15 million spent to buy the first new ferry and build its terminals. Even his planes, it now appears, were purchased with financing from the Export Development Corporation, an arm of the federal government, established to assist Canadian manufacturers to export their products.

Porter has a virtual monopoly on commercial air service from the Island Airport.

"No more public money – or public assets – should handed over to Porter. If Porter wants the tunnel, it should be paying for it. Really, Porter should relocate to Pearson, where it would compete on a level playing field." Iler concluded.

 

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