Green Party Stance on the Proposed Pickering Airport

Below is a press release released by the Green Party outlining its stance on the Proposed Pickering Airport. Keep this in mind when the next election comes around!

Harris Challenges Other Leaders to Scrap Pickering’s Second Mirabelle

Environment and Tax Dollars at Risk in Pickering Airport Plans

Your local Green Party candidate will be attending the Greenwood All Candidates meeting tonight. With regards to one local issue in particular, he takes a page out of Jim Harris’s book.

When Green Party Leader Jim Harris visited Pickering last Thursday he challenged the Liberal Party and Paul Martin to reconsider Pickering Airport Plans and instead donate 75 Km² of federal land in North Pickering to the GTA Greenbelt.   

”The federal government made a good start when it protected 31 square kilometres of these lands a few years ago,” said Harris. “Now it should follow through by protecting the remainder. As for the transportation concerns, there are other options.”

He explains that the Toronto Pearson Airport has just undergone expensive upgrades and in the wake of 9/11 and world terrorism threats. “Air traffic growth has slowed and many airlines, including  Air Canada, are in  serious financial trouble,” “Planning and building a second airport for the GTA would divert tax dollars from high priority public spending. Transport Canada predicts Pearson won't be at capacity until 2018, so we can think of better solutions than this.”

Instead of creating runways less than 1km from the nearest residential area, Harris has another plan. ”The Green Party would scrap the Pickering Airport Plan and we would channel the Department of Transportation savings into the creation of a high-quality light rail transit system,” said Harris, “so that GTA residents have an alternative to endless road congestion and choking smog. “

The Green Party also supports upgrades to inter-city rail services in busy corridors so that people have a fast and safe alternative to flying, and so that more goods can move by rail in order to get some of the big trucks off the area’s over-loaded highways.

Not only would scrapping the airport conserve taxpayer’s money, it would conserve some key environmental land. The Green Party would dedicate the federal land in Pickering to the GTA Greenbelt to help link the Lake to the Moraine and to join the nationally significant Rouge Park with the Duffins Creek Greenspace System. Protecting all of 75 km² of the federal lands will help to contain urban sprawl, protecting the forests that purify the air and water of the GTA and protecting the fertile farm lands that are the local food sources.  

“We all remember what a mistake Mirabelle was,” said Harris. “Let’s not make it again. It would be even more environmentally and economically foolish for the federal government to approve the Pickering Airport plans now than it was last time this came up.”

“Local groups are very vocal about this issue and the Green Party seems to be the only one listening.”