Stand in Little Norway Park on a weekday evening as the sun starts to set, and then go to Vermont Square.

As little as 5 years ago the experience would be the same.

The air would be cool and fresh, the quiet sound of kids and the occasional dog or bird might be heard and the experience tranquil.

Is that what residents in the Bathurst Quay now experience?

Life has radically changed in this community.

Jet fuel fumes fill the air, taxis jam their streets, planes fill their skies and invade their public and private space with noise, strangers, cut through the local playground and scold kids playing in a wading pool. People pee in the park and school yard, crossing the street is a challenge, and even late at night calm is not certain.

Every one of these unwelcome changes comes courtesy of an ambitious industrial neighbour, the Toronto Port Authority.

Virtually every time the community has turned to government for protection, or at the very least consideration, save for a single vote on the bridge 8 years ago, and a move to create a sidewalk alongside Eireann Quay 5 years ago, powerful lobbyists, or senior levels of government with ministers from hundreds of miles away turns their back on the needs of the community.

The TPA when it doesn't get its way or seeks to curb political action by its neighbours turns to the courts. Sometimes it’s not the TPA alone, sometimes its tenants.

I've been threatened twice, CommunityAIR more than that. Eight CommunityAIR volunteers were sued by the TPA (thankfully, later dropped by the TPA, after thousands were spent on defending lawyers’ fees). PILTS, the sidewalk, and on and on. Sometimes the courts are asked to rule, more often than not settlements that undermine the community are reached. Sometimes massive payments are made to the airport and its tenants. Rarely are community needs addressed.

When the TPA comes forward with a "it could be worse" argument you need to understand that there has yet been a proposal that doesn't make it worse. It all just piles on. The accumulated impact just gets harder and harder to bear.

While TPA staff get paid to show up at meetings, the community must engage on their own time, in yet another round of consultation that only deepens the despair.

When the neighbourhood says there is noise the TPA says no.

When the community says you can't increase flights without evicting medevac the TPA says residents are exaggerating and then evicts medevac.

When the community says you can't build the tunnel under current regs, the TPA says no, but then attempts to get the regs changed.

When the community says you can’t build the tunnel as presented without city consent and land, the TPA says no, and then turns around strikes a deal with the City because permission and land is needed.

The TPA says that it will manage the taxis with extra land, the gets the land from the City but can't fit taxis on the property. The list goes on.

When the community asks why the recent TPA/City agreement was ratified so quickly, the TPA’s response was “ask your councillor”. This, when the TPA released a statement applauding a deal before council even debated the issue, and put pressure on the City to sign now or not at all prompting the mayors office to rush the decision to council.

How the TPA expects the community, let alone the councillor they have elected to represent their interests, to do better next time is mindboggling. Maybe we will learn how to lose gracefully in the future. Right now it is too much to expect.

The only choices brought to residents are between options that are a little worse or completely terrible.

When is the TPA ever going to make life better for these residents? And until they do why wouldn't you expect belly aching?

Fix the harbour walls.

Respect the curfew and impose meaningful fines.

Manage the taxis.

Stop bludgeoning the community with lawsuits.

Return the 100‑foot vehicle easement through Little Norway Park.

Negotiate in good faith.

Respect all of the public, not just your passengers.

And then maybe a more civil dialogue is possible.

Until then examine the TPA history more closely before casting a critical eye towards the community.

Until the neighbourhood I represent is happy, or even at the least respected, I have a duty to fight for them. And fight I will.

Respectfully? As respectfully as the TPA.

Adam Vaughan

City Councillor

Ward 20 Toronto