"Green party leader Elizabeth May flew to Toronto between the leaders’ debates to be on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos. A car was on standby in case of airline trouble. May flew Porter Airlines and took the ferry from the island airport to the CBC studios."

Hello Elizabeth May!!!  Hello Green Party!!! 

• Didn't you know that the Island Airport brings air pollution to hundreds of thousands of people in downtown Toronto? 
• Didn't you know that your local Green Party candidate in the election advocates that the Island Airport should be closed?
• Didn't you know that local people have launched a boycott against the use of the Island Airport?

Wake up to the political issues of local environmental groups!

Given the urgent need to address greenhouse gas-caused climate change, do you support government policies that encourage and develop high speed rail in the Windsor - Toronto - Montreal - Quebec City corridor, and discourage short-haul flights?

CommunityAIR is all-volunteer, with extremely limited resources. And a very clear goal: we are devoted to restoring the lands and harbour now occupied by the Toronto Island airport to park, recreation, and cultural uses. We have a number of ways in which we approach that goal, and a general campaign to encourage people to fly less, just isn’t very high on our list of priorities right  now – not that that wouldn’t be a good thing to do.

It was  painfully obvious that EXPO 2015 was going nowhere. We were pleased, though, to see the proposed use of the airport lands as one of the two fair sites. So, no, we didn’t put any energy into the EXPO issue – as I recall, too,  we were entirely occupied with electing a mayor, and stopping that bridge.

I’d appreciate your sharing your figures on greenhouse gas contributions  – we find it most difficult to access any hard figures on the Q400’s fuel efficiency, and, as a result,  tend to fall back on sources like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which published a report “Aviation and the Global Atmosphere” [See http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc/aviation/index.htm paragraph 8.3.2], that contained this chart:

A lot depends on the passenger load – we believe Porter’s passenger loads aren’t much above 50%, which makes its flights even worse than this chart suggests (the industry standard of 70% seems to be used) – it’s also true that the Q400 is about 15% more efficient than a comparable jet (extrapolating from figures available from Bombardier), but that’s not that great, when short haul flights are so far off the chart.

Your point on car v. air travel is fair – depending on passenger loads, they can be, more or less, equivalent to air travel.  A Prius with four passengers would be vastly superior to a half-empty aircraft in greenhouse gases emitted per passenger-kilometre. .Where we really need to go, clearly, is rail, as that can be powered by sustainable energy – something that is just impossible for aircraft.

And yes – there are lots of ways to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Since the need to do so quickly  is painfully obvious, we need to, at least, start with the low-hanging fruit – given the available alternatives, short-haul flying is one of the more obvious ones to pluck.

Interestingly, you refer to the proposed (still, after all these years) Pickering airport – we share a great deal in common with those who are waging such a protracted battle against that – deflating Transport Canada’s wrong-headed infatuation with air travel, to the exclusion of the environmentally friendlier alternatives, would greatly assist us both.

Finally, you refer to medical emergencies.

First – there are no emergency flights that land at the Island airport – there have been some involving stable patients being transferred, but they can land just as easily at Pearson. 

Ambulance helicopters are stationed at the Island Airport, but deliver their emergency patients from pickup points as far away as Barrie and Muskoka directly to hospital helipads. We’ve done a study, using data from Ornge, the agency that operates Ontario’s air ambulance service, that shows conclusively that stationing helicopters at the Island airport adds significant minutes to the time it takes to get a critically ill or injured patient to hospital – minutes that can make a huge difference in the outcome. That’s because 89% of the flights out of the Island Airport are to pickup points north of Steeles. That study is on our website: www.communityair.org

As a result, we’ve asked David Caplan, Minister of Health, in the interests of improving patient care, to move the helicopter base from the Island Airport to Buttonville, or thereabouts. And we’ve asked the Port Authority to release the ambulance service from its lease, so that can happen soon.

      From looking at aviation websites, I see that pilots and aviation fans have a lot of excitement about flying.  It certainly takes courage and a lot of skill to fly an airplane. My father graduated as an aeronautical engineer. We lived near O’Hare airport and went there to see planes take off and land.

     It’s only in recent years that the environmental impacts of flying have become clear.  Since thousands of people live near the island airport, some of us did research on the consequences to health of living near an airport.

     A study done by the town where I grew up showed the cancer risk to be significantly elevated within a 30-mile radius of O’Hare Airport.  Since I lived and went to school much closer than that, I wondered if the cancer I contracted had its origin there.  It’s not really about hating aviation.

 Brenda from CommunityAIR

But there are several serious problems with flying, that  are now increasingly obvious – that we ignore at our peril, and that of our kids, and grandchildren:

·        Fossil fuels are in limited supply – and increasingly so. The recent spike in gas prices is a harbinger of things to come. There are activities that are essential for our survival – food, and building heating – that must have priority over other less essential uses. Longer-term, we need to ensure that that supply of fossil fuels last a lot longer than it is forecast to last at current consumption levels. Air travel – and particularly short haul air travel, where more sustainable alternatives are readily available (admittedly not quite as convenient) – that isn’t really that essential, is one of the first places to start cutting back consumption. In this light,  government policy should discourage air travel, not encourage it.

·         Similar considerations apply with respect to climate change – which has the direst of consequences for us if we don’t drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions quickly. Flying, and, again, particularly, short-haul flying – has to be a major target for reductions. Unlike other forms of transportation, it just isn’t possible to substitute renewable energy sources for jet fuel.

·         There are now a number of studies that establish significant  health hazards that flow from residing in proximity to a busy commercial airport – from carcinogenic exhaust gases, to noise from incessant aircraft movements interfering with ordinary living.

For these reasons, we think  government policies should remove subsidies for air travel, and start providing serious support for environmentally sustainable transportation.

Did you know that the federal government has subsidized the Island Airport – through outright grants, and by allowing public assets (held by the Toronto Port Authority) to be spent. Here are some of those subsidies:

·         $35 million in spurious compensation for stopping the bridge ($20 million to Porter to compensate it for not being able to start an airline, which it used as seed capital to start Porter!),

·          another $15 million to build ferry facilities, and a new ferry,

·         all the while claiming an exemption from property taxes to the City (arrears have accumulated to some $38 million owing by the TPA, according to the City).

So it’s not a matter of being anti-flying, but more about taking responsibility to begin to address some very significant problems.

           LITTLE NORWAY PARK
        Saturday October 4, 2008 from 2 - 5pm

                                            Supported by

Community Air, Windward Co-op, Harbourfront Community Centre, Shadowland Theatre, Red Pepper Spectacle Arts, Scaramouche Theatre, Swizzlestick Theatre, Jumblies Theatre Higher Ground, House of Big Hair, Clay and Paper, City School, City of Toronto Parks and Recreation, Chris Wilson and the Arythmics

                                                Activities

Come, work and play and make Air Art.  Costumes, flags, banners. Assemble large puppets, make music, have fun at the festival of air.

Join a traditional ceremony with the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation and a Grand Parade through the community.

This event also celebrates the end of the 2nd year and the 100th vigil of the community’s “Close the Island Airport” campaign.
                               
                For more information email
                        leidaenglar@sympatico.ca or call 
                (416) 203-1006

                A pass the hat event

Olivia Chow, the NDP candidate, got there for the first 20 minutes, when there were only about 10 people in the room.  Attendance picked up later.  I asked her about the island airport, cap-and-trade, and co-op housing.  She was her usual excellent self on co-op housing.  She said she envisions a park where the airport is, and she gave a passionate argument for cap-and-trade, which separated her from the Liberals and Greens, who want the carbon tax.  Then she had to leave.

Christine Innis, the Liberal candidate, came in.  She is a lawyer and sophisticated.  She answered the co-op questions unequivocally.   When her husband, Tony Ianno, was our MP, he was lukewarm on co-op housing and told us to be “practical.”  I asked her about the airport, thinking she'd fudge, and she said we could get the airport closed if the city wanted to.  It's up to the community, but the city would have to initiate the process.  There are contracts that go until (2033?).  I gathered she thought the city would have to buy its way out of them, and it would be expensive.  We reminded her that it was the Liberals who saddled Toronto with the port authority that’s cost the city so much.

Then she left, and the Green candidate, Stephen LaFrenie, came in.  He’s sophisticated on issues of policy, and of course, he's sincere and much less of a pol than Christine. The Undecideds sat up in their chairs.  His position on co-ops was good but too nuanced around local self-determination and international development issues to engage the undecided co-op voters.  He and the current Greens also seem socialist.  That’s a change!  So, I said they should work with the NDP and not split the vote.  He quickly segued into proportional representation.  Someone pointed out that the NDP agreed with him on that.  I didn’t ask him about the island airport.  I think the Greens are for fast trains.    

Brenda Roman