Press Release of Tuesday, November 16, 2010:

The Toronto Port Authority’s just announced Tunnel Environmental Assessment is fundamentally flawed, says CommunityAIR Chair Brian Iler.

“This is a study that was prepared by the TPA’s chosen consultants, reviewed by the TPA, and approved by the TPA. There has been no arm’s length approval – by anyone. The whole process was a sham.” he said.

Last March, at a raucous community meeting, the TPA promised to engage the community as it performed the tunnel assessment, and as the law requires.  Participants complained loudly at that meeting that there was no information on which comments could be productively made.

There has been none of the promised community engagement.

Worse, as Porter’s Robert Deluce yesterday admitted

(see https://secure.globeadvisor.com/servlet/ArticleNews/story/gam/20101116/RBTICKERAATL_1

this tunnel is an essential component of its plans for a drastic expansion of the already unacceptable number of commercial flights from the Island Airport. This environmental assessment failed to include any assessment of the environmental impact of airport expansion.

The Supreme Court of Canada, as recently as last January in the Red Chris Mine case, made it clear that an environmental assessment must include in an EA the entire project, not just a part.

If this can’t be stopped at City Council – and we think it can – we may have no choice but to challenge this EA in the courts.