Letter to the Editor
Pickering would be another Mirabel
Markham Economist and Sun, November 25, 2004
Re: Airport plan 'good for York', Nov. 6.
Now that the billion-dollar Mirabel Airport boondoggle has finally been admitted by everyone involved and the airport was finally closed, our beloved politicians in Markham and surrounding areas like to make us believe a Pickering airport was the best thing that could ever happen to us people living close to it.
The full truth is all towns surrounding the Pickering airport will become disaster areas for everyone living in them. Wind direction here is mainly from the west or northwest.
Looking at the plan for the airport, that is exactly the way the runways have been laid out. In simple words, it means most planes would take off right over Markham and Stouffville.
If you think you had problems with Buttonville's small planes, wait till the first big passenger jet roars over your head at 1 or 6 a.m.
To make a long story short, life in our small part of the world will never be the same thanks to our elected politicians.
If ever there was a need for anyone living in our area to stop something before it is too late, the time is now. Help to bring our seemingly out-of-control politicians back to what they should be doing, namely to help to preserve our towns and lifestyle and work to protect them.
Did anyone say we have a traffic problem now? Wait till they start building the Pickering airport. The biggest problem will come if we wait too long to protests against an airport in Pickering. It will be too late. Work on the airport started a long time ago, while we were sleeping.
By the government's own admission, Pearson airport with all its new extensions and runways is sufficient for years and years to come. So why is it that we would need another Mirabel style boondoggle airport in our Toronto area?
There isn't a single good reason for an airport in Pickering at the moment and everyone who flies knows that.
Isn't it enough that our best farmlands disappear with an alarming rate by putting subdivisions on it? Do we really want some of our nicest places that we still have left paved over by an airport?
HEINZ NITSCHKE
MARKHAM