(Editor's note:  A CommunityAIR member enquired why there are no height restrictions on buildings around the Island Airport.  Brian Iler sent this reply.  Brian is a lawyer who acted on behalf of the co-op that funded and built the wind turbine on the CNE grounds.)

(The developers of the windmill on the CNE grounds) were restricted in how high we could go with the Ex Place turbine. Transport Canada registers a complex regulation on the title of all the properties around the airport setting out what the restrictions are. I’ve seen it years ago.

 It is a somewhat political document – while TC has the right to set whatever height restrictions it pleases without any consultation (since aeronautics is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government, the provincial government and its municipalities cannot interfere with that right), practically, TC balances that right to some extent with the other uses on the waterfront, and designs flight paths that work within the restrictions it creates.

 The number of flights is limited by the NEF Contours in the tripartite agreement. The NEF Contours consider noise intensity and frequency in a quite crude and ancient computer program to determine compliance with the limits..Whether there is currently compliance or not is not known, as both TC and the TPA (Toronto Port Authority) refuse to provide any existing NEF Contour studies to the community.

 There is a review of the existing NEF studies we have seen that confirmed to Porter’s investors that there would be sufficient slots (landings and takeoffs) available to warrant their investment. That review did not take helicopter noise into account. But now, helicopter noise has to be included in the new study that TC is supposed to be carrying out, and that will certainly diminish the slots available.

 Of course, as the TPA refuses to abide by the tripartite agreement’s limits on the types of aircraft permitted to be used for commercial passenger purposes (STOL only, and the Q400 is not), or the prohibition of aircraft generating excessive noise (the Q400 is within that definition), or the curfew (two breaches as recently as last month), one might well conclude that the TPA will pay as much attention the NEF Contour limits as it has to the other constraints it is supposed to be bound by.

 The City of Toronto is the only entity that has the power to enforce the tripartite agreement. Until it decides to do so, the TPA will continue to do as it has.

 Brian Iler, chair, CommunityAIR