Plan for Pickering airport dead after more than 50 years of debate, Ottawa says

After more than a half century in limbo, the federal government has abandoned plans for an airport at a site in Pickering, Ont., and will instead look to expand the area's urban national park.

Transport Minister Anita Anand said the government had decided against turning the Pickering lands into an airport and would instead transfer the "vast majority" of it to Parks Canada with the intent to expand the Rouge National Urban Park.

"Our goal is to ensure this space benefits everyone today, and for generations to come," she said on Monday. Anand was one of four cabinet ministers to attend the announcement.

A battle over the future of the land has brewed since at least 1972 when Pierre Trudeau's government expropriated about 18,600 acres for a possible airport site. The move sparked protest, and the government put the plans on hold three years later in favour of expanding the province's already-built airports.

At Monday's announcement, a local Liberal MP credited conservation group Land Over Landings for its long-standing advocacy against the airport and for the protection of the land.

"This work continues to ensure the future of these lands reflect our shared vision. But finally, after 50 years, a threat of an airport is over and our future is bright," said Jennifer O'Connell, MP for Pickering-Uxbridge.

Pickering city council voted in 2023 to withdraw its support for the airport plan. It cited a Transport Canada-commissioned report that concluded southern Ontario would not need a new airport before 2036.

The only vote against the motion was cast by Mayor Kevin Ashe, who suggested the airport would be a major economic driver to help support the city's projected population boom.

The mayor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the past decade, the government has transferred more than half the Pickering land to Parks Canada for the creation and then the expansion of the Rouge National Urban Park.

But Transport Canada held on to about 8,700 acres of the land for a potential future airport. The government says properties have since been leased to residential, farm and commercial tenants.

The majority of the lands are agricultural and span an area across Pickering, Markham and Uxbridge. The area overlaps parts of Ontario's protected Greenbelt and is the traditional and treaty lands of the First Nations who signed the Williams Treaty.

Consultations to start soon

Consultations will be held with the public, Indigenous communities and the tenants in the "coming weeks" to determine future use of the lands, the government said.

"We want to get going on the consultations. There's no time to waste," Anand said.

The land not transferred to Parks Canada will stay with Transport Canada and undergo another consultation on future uses, a spokesperson for Anand said.

Anand said she expects the remaining land that falls within Ontario's Greenbelt will be protected.

"It's been a very long time coming," said Rosemary Oliver, who has lived near the Rouge for four decades and showed to up to hear Anand's announcement on Monday. 

"People have been working at it for all those years. They have never stopped. This day is a big landmark in protecting a very important area." 

Ottawa to build new visitor centre at Rouge Park

Transport Canada and the minister's office did not respond to questions about the outcome of the department's 2023 request for proposal to study airport capacity needs in southern Ontario.

A department news release at the time said the study would mark the "first step" toward a final decision on future airport capacity constraints and on the future of the Pickering lands.

At Monday's announcement, Anand said Toronto Pearson Airport and the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport were "extremely important hubs."

The government is also set to spend $21 million to build a new visitor, learning and community centre at the Rouge National Urban Park. It says the park is about an hour's drive from 20 per cent of Canada's population and is accessible by public transit.