PRLog (Press Release) – Jun 19, 2010 – Officially known as the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, the facility serves as the hub for Canada's third largest scheduled air carrier, Porter Airlines. Approximately 2,000 Porter passengers pass through the Bishop airport daily on commercial flights to regional destinations such as Newark and Ottawa. Porter has confirmed that  "it will operate a full flight schedule during the G20 Summit meetings scheduled on June 26-27, in Toronto."

The 3/4-mile length of the east-west runway at Bishop almost equals the distance separating it from the Convention Centre. Seats in Porter's fleet of 20 Bombardier Q400 aircraft have been reconfigured in order to meet safety standards dictated by Toronto’s compact runway. Designed for low gross weight, Porter's medium-range, Q400 turboprops carry less potentially explosive fuel than the long-distance jets which were targeted for the World Trade Center attacks. While it is inconceivable that a hijacked Q400 could topple the relatively low-slung Metro Toronto Convention Centre, considerable loss of life might nevertheless occur in a terrorist attack modeled along 9/11 lines — especially if it was aimed at a high-rise hotel full of summit participants.

The last significant terrorist disaster involving a Toronto airport was caused by sabotage rather than hijacking. In 1985, Sikh terrorists arranged to have a bomb loaded onto Air India Flight 181/ 182 in Toronto. The explosive device detonated over Ireland, killing all 329 onboard. The Commission of Inquiry investigating the catastrophe concluded that a "cascading series of errors contributed to the failure of our police and security forces to prevent this atrocity."  The commission's report, released June 17, 2010 at http://www.majorcomm.ca/en/reports/finalreport , cautions against complacency, "Many of the same deficiencies in aviation security that were identified in 1985 continue to be raised as urgent concerns today."

Since 2010 is the first year in which the G20 and G8 Summits are being hosted conjointly, security challenges are especially daunting. During the summit period, Porter's regularly scheduled flights will be subject to enhanced security screening. No announcement has been made as to whether air marshals will be providing Porter with onboard protection, as was the case after 9/11 with commercial airlines using Washington’s Reagan Airport (also sensitively located in a city center).

The no fly zone above the convention center will exclude airborne objects even as small as kites. Several CF-18 fighter jets based outside of the city will patrol Toronto airspace, and have been assigned interception responsibilities. An examination of a Toronto waterfront map makes it clear that if a Porter flight were to be hijacked at a late stage in its final descent, the Canadian military's response time limitations would be severe. The 9/ 10 of mile separating the runway from convention halls hardly creates a comfort zone.

Some Toronto activist groups such as CommunityAIR are convinced that these security measures are inadequate, and oppose the operation of an airport on the Toronto Islands — not only for the duration of the summits, but on a continuing basis. Mayor David Miller has also expressed reservations concerning the existence of the island airport, which opened in 1939 when the Toronto's port still had a significant industrial component. A waterfront location was chosen in order to accommodate the seaplanes and bushplanes then in common use.

In the last 30 years, the entire area of the mainland opposite the Bishop Airport has been redeveloped as condos, office buildings and convention facilities. Toronto's harbourfront and so-called railway lands have in fact been subject to development activity of an intensity almost unrivalled in the whole of North America. Obviously, aviation-generated noise and pollution are more relevant now than in the 1930’s; and the proximity of so many high-rises to the runway increases the potential severity of accidents or terrorist incidents.  These concerns are less pressing at Pearson International, the Greater Toronto Area's modernized and spacious main airport. Porter's website publicity remains blithely oblivious of the darker ironies of the 'proximity' factor. "Speed. How's this for a change. The next time you fly into Toronto, you can actually fly into Toronto."

The inability of various levels of government to come to terms with the problems associated with the Bishop Airport is symptomatic of a larger malaise: Toronto is no longer "the city that works". It is unlikely that a half-constructed subway line will be completed. Some of the city's better-known arenas built for hockey (a sport venerated in Canada) have recently been used to store garbage, or sit empty. Unlike Montreal, Vancouver, New York or London, Ontario's capital lacks a large, easily accessible downtown park that can serve as the lungs of the city. The 215 acres at the northwest tip of the Toronto Island were once occupied by an amusement park, a regatta course and the baseball stadium where Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run. These were all demolished in order to make way for the island airport.

Although much of the remainder of the Toronto Islands currently exists as parkland, the general public can only gain access to it by queuing for antiquated ferries (which have a $6.50 fare). If it were suggested that entry to Central Park, Mount Royal, Hyde Park or the Tiergarten should carry this sort of admission charge, the local community outcry would be deafening. In polite Toronto, there is a very muted campaign (popular with many residents of the largely treeless harbor area) to convert back to recreational purposes the land presently monopolized by Bishop's aviation infrastructure.

No doubt the world's leaders will be discussing other matters at the summit, even though this one reality will literally be staring at them in the face: Toronto has an opportunity to create a world-class, urban park on a scale that is possible in few cities so late in their development. There is no to need to hire a modern Baron Haussmann to rip up the fabric of the metropolis. French visitors may indeed wonder why Canadian authorities persist in fighting to preserve a small airport principally used by the business and government elites for short-haul flights. In France, such trips are handled by the more environmentally benign, high-speed TGV rail network, a grand project launched after the Concorde fiasco drove home the riskiness of aviation investments.

TGVs are not included in the construction plans of the Toronto Port Authority. Instead, it is proposing a pedestrian tunnel that is to connect the anachronistic Bishop airfield to a vital and burgeoning mainland precinct. Although the link is to be restricted for the exclusive use of fliers, in actuality, it could be engineered just as easily for the benefit of park users. A tunnel would give walkers and cyclists direct access to what has the potential of becoming the largest regional green space within a 15-mile radius of Toronto City Hall. Properly landscaped, it would be a jewel comparable in stature to many of the world's great municipal parks.

Of course, for all this to happen, the Bishop airport would have to be eliminated. Canada's most populous city would then be able to join the ranks of civilized metropolises that do not compel their citizens to queue in line or pay entrance fees in order to enjoy what truly are 'central parks'.

So how has the federal government decided to proceed? It has opted for an expansion of the Bishop Airport's activities over the next few years. Ottawa is also serious about its prohibition against kite-flying, and is allocating one billion dollars to the enforcement of this ban, bedbug eradication and other summit-related security matters.

Wags no longer refer to Toronto as "New York run by the Swiss". Now it is New York run by the Greeks.