Report on the Toronto Port Authority Annual General Meeting
The newspaper, television and radio reporters will soon fill printed pages and airways with accounts of the Toronto Port Authority (TPA) Annual General Meeting (AGM), but let us give our account of the confrontation to help you understand what went on at this important meeting.
First the setting. The TPA always goes first class. The AGM was in the Upper Canada Room of the Royal York Hotel, a lovely room at the top of Toronto's most prestigious hotel, overlooking the Waterfront, the bay, the Islands and Lake Ontario in the distance. The place was packed with people and scores of media. There were two types of people in the room: the suits, those supporting the TPA, and the citizens, people opposed, or at least concerned, about the operations of the Port Authority.
Things got underway when Mark McQueen, the Chair of the TPA, announced the new name of the Island Airport was to be the Billy Bishop Airport. As it turns out there is another Billy Bishop Airport in Bishop's home town of Owen Sound. McQueen claimed that the Port Authority had talked to the Mayor of Owen Sound and had their permission to use the name. In fact if you read today's Globe and Mail article that seems to be in doubt. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/airports-at-war-over-billy-bishop-moniker/article1273966/
Then the meeting moved on to the survey that the TPA commissioned about the tunnel and the perception of what a wonderful job is being done by the Port Authority. The hoots and heckling grew louder. This crowd, or at least the citizens in the crowd, had already decided that this was a bogus survey, designed to make the TPA and the tunnel look good. Patience was growing thin. Finally someone said "Let him finish so we can move on." That's what happened.
There were other important matters like the finances and reports from the acting CEO, but then the meeting moved on to the part that everyone had come for: the questions and answer period. This is when things livened up.
Councillor Adam Vaughan was one of the first on his feet. Essentially he said that the TPA Board was completely dysfunctional. Board minutes had been changed and a cover up of some sort was going on. David Gurin, the city appointee to the TPA Board, was questioned by Vaughan and he said that he was not present at the meetings under question but some changes had been made in the minutes of meetings that he had attended. Later Mr. Reid and Mr. Henley, both former board members of the TPA Board, spoke to the meeting and said that minutes had been changed.
This was a very heated exchange with Adam Vaughan being interrupted by the chair, Mark McQueen, on a number of occasions. To his credit McQueen tried to answer these questions but the answers were difficult to follow. Essentially he seemed to be saying that nothing was done illegally.
The meeting went on to deal with other important questions but came back to the issue of board dysfunction with a series of questions by Brian Iler, the chair of CommunityAIR. Iler directed his questions to board member Colin Wilson and addressed the conflict of interest issue. The conflict stems from Wilson's vote in favour of purchasing the new ferry, a ferryboat that would be of benefit to Porter Airlines. The accusation was that Wilson was a friend of Robert Deluce, the CEO of Porter Airlines, and therefore should not have voted on this issue.
Iler made the point that this was an appearance of a conflict of interest which is prohibited in the letters patent of the Port Authority, and therefore, the vote should not have been allowed. Moreover there had been a legal opinion given to the board that he was in conflict and that Wilson and the Chair of the TPA had ignored that opinion.
Wilson justified his actions by saying that there has been an inquiry about this issue that exonerated him. Iler continued the attack, saying that the inquiry ignored the direction to directors in the letters patent. This was a heated exchange and at one point Wilson accused Iler of being a communist. (Brian Iler is a founder and senior partner in an established Toronto law firm.)
There was no resolution to this exchange but not long afterwords Mr. Wilson left the meeting, suggesting that he did not much care for his brush with democratic accountability.
There were other questions. One dealt with the issue of jets at the Island Airport. An oped article in the Toronto Star this morning by Bob Hepburn called, "Time to allow jets at the Island Airport," made this proposal. Chairman McQueen answered that they did not support jets. There was actually some applause for that response.
Another question was posed about the tunnel. Apparently the pedestrian tunnel will be wide enough to accommodate two lanes of traffic. The question asked if the real intent was to make a vehicle tunnel? Again the answer was no.
Another very contentious issue was about curfew violations. Recently CommunityAIR learned that after the curfew of 11:00 pm the air traffic controllers went home and no one was in the control tower at the Island Airport. Porter flights continue to violate the curfew and they are coming into the airport without assistance, raising serious safety concerns of the residents. The question focused on the TPA curfew policy and whether Porter had been fined for these violations. The answer was that they do not have a policy or it is ad hoc at best. Apparently there have been three fines of Porter for curfew violations but there have been dozens of violations of curfew. No assurances were given that there would be air traffic controllers in the tower after curfew or that curfew violations would be stopped.
There were questions addressed to the auditor and a number of statements denouncing the airport and all of the pollution that the flights were causing in the downtown of the city. After the meeting broke up there were press scrums of both Mark McQueen and of Adam Vaughan. It was the statement of Vaughan that was explosive.
Adam Vaughan pointed out that the minutes revealed that the former CEO of the TPA, Lisa Raitt, now the Minister of Energy in the Harper Conservative government, had racked up $50,000 in expenses at the restaurant in the TPA building. He asked a number of pointed questions about this and concluded by pointing out that members of the Loto Ontario Board had been dismissed for a $600 expense. This $50,000 expense of Lisa Raitt is outrageous!
There will be more fall out to come. Watch for it.
Bill Freeman
First the setting. The TPA always goes first class. The AGM was in the Upper Canada Room of the Royal York Hotel, a lovely room at the top of Toronto's most prestigious hotel, overlooking the Waterfront, the bay, the Islands and Lake Ontario in the distance. The place was packed with people and scores of media. There were two types of people in the room: the suits, those supporting the TPA, and the citizens, people opposed, or at least concerned, about the operations of the Port Authority.
Things got underway when Mark McQueen, the Chair of the TPA, announced the new name of the Island Airport was to be the Billy Bishop Airport. As it turns out there is another Billy Bishop Airport in Bishop's home town of Owen Sound. McQueen claimed that the Port Authority had talked to the Mayor of Owen Sound and had their permission to use the name. In fact if you read today's Globe and Mail article that seems to be in doubt. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/airports-at-war-over-billy-bishop-moniker/article1273966/
Then the meeting moved on to the survey that the TPA commissioned about the tunnel and the perception of what a wonderful job is being done by the Port Authority. The hoots and heckling grew louder. This crowd, or at least the citizens in the crowd, had already decided that this was a bogus survey, designed to make the TPA and the tunnel look good. Patience was growing thin. Finally someone said "Let him finish so we can move on." That's what happened.
There were other important matters like the finances and reports from the acting CEO, but then the meeting moved on to the part that everyone had come for: the questions and answer period. This is when things livened up.
Councillor Adam Vaughan was one of the first on his feet. Essentially he said that the TPA Board was completely dysfunctional. Board minutes had been changed and a cover up of some sort was going on. David Gurin, the city appointee to the TPA Board, was questioned by Vaughan and he said that he was not present at the meetings under question but some changes had been made in the minutes of meetings that he had attended. Later Mr. Reid and Mr. Henley, both former board members of the TPA Board, spoke to the meeting and said that minutes had been changed.
This was a very heated exchange with Adam Vaughan being interrupted by the chair, Mark McQueen, on a number of occasions. To his credit McQueen tried to answer these questions but the answers were difficult to follow. Essentially he seemed to be saying that nothing was done illegally.
The meeting went on to deal with other important questions but came back to the issue of board dysfunction with a series of questions by Brian Iler, the chair of CommunityAIR. Iler directed his questions to board member Colin Wilson and addressed the conflict of interest issue. The conflict stems from Wilson's vote in favour of purchasing the new ferry, a ferryboat that would be of benefit to Porter Airlines. The accusation was that Wilson was a friend of Robert Deluce, the CEO of Porter Airlines, and therefore should not have voted on this issue.
Iler made the point that this was an appearance of a conflict of interest which is prohibited in the letters patent of the Port Authority, and therefore, the vote should not have been allowed. Moreover there had been a legal opinion given to the board that he was in conflict and that Wilson and the Chair of the TPA had ignored that opinion.
Wilson justified his actions by saying that there has been an inquiry about this issue that exonerated him. Iler continued the attack, saying that the inquiry ignored the direction to directors in the letters patent. This was a heated exchange and at one point Wilson accused Iler of being a communist. (Brian Iler is a founder and senior partner in an established Toronto law firm.)
There was no resolution to this exchange but not long afterwords Mr. Wilson left the meeting, suggesting that he did not much care for his brush with democratic accountability.
There were other questions. One dealt with the issue of jets at the Island Airport. An oped article in the Toronto Star this morning by Bob Hepburn called, "Time to allow jets at the Island Airport," made this proposal. Chairman McQueen answered that they did not support jets. There was actually some applause for that response.
Another question was posed about the tunnel. Apparently the pedestrian tunnel will be wide enough to accommodate two lanes of traffic. The question asked if the real intent was to make a vehicle tunnel? Again the answer was no.
Another very contentious issue was about curfew violations. Recently CommunityAIR learned that after the curfew of 11:00 pm the air traffic controllers went home and no one was in the control tower at the Island Airport. Porter flights continue to violate the curfew and they are coming into the airport without assistance, raising serious safety concerns of the residents. The question focused on the TPA curfew policy and whether Porter had been fined for these violations. The answer was that they do not have a policy or it is ad hoc at best. Apparently there have been three fines of Porter for curfew violations but there have been dozens of violations of curfew. No assurances were given that there would be air traffic controllers in the tower after curfew or that curfew violations would be stopped.
There were questions addressed to the auditor and a number of statements denouncing the airport and all of the pollution that the flights were causing in the downtown of the city. After the meeting broke up there were press scrums of both Mark McQueen and of Adam Vaughan. It was the statement of Vaughan that was explosive.
Adam Vaughan pointed out that the minutes revealed that the former CEO of the TPA, Lisa Raitt, now the Minister of Energy in the Harper Conservative government, had racked up $50,000 in expenses at the restaurant in the TPA building. He asked a number of pointed questions about this and concluded by pointing out that members of the Loto Ontario Board had been dismissed for a $600 expense. This $50,000 expense of Lisa Raitt is outrageous!
There will be more fall out to come. Watch for it.
Bill Freeman
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