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Prime Minister Mark Carney is not ruling out ever allowing jets to land at Toronto’s island airport, but he is focused for now on a broader transportation picture, he said Wednesday.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford had pitched a plan to expand Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport to allow jets to land, framing it as a way to boost the economy.
It was an idea Carney at one point said was “interesting,” but his government would later nix it.
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“Interesting’ has a quite wide range of meanings,” Carney noted at a press conference Wednesday when asked about it.
The land is governed as a tripartite agreement that was formerly between the city of Toronto, the federal government and the Toronto Port Authority, which is a federal agency, but the province took over the city’s role earlier this year.
Carney’s government rejected Ford’s vision last month following a consultation largely opposed to the idea of jets. The results of the consultation were clear, Carney said, but “forever is a long time.”
His government is developing a “comprehensive” approach to transportation, touching on airports large and regional as well as rail, he said.
“(Billy Bishop) is a small part of a much bigger puzzle, and we need to focus on those other puzzle pieces,” Carney said.
Sources who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to share internal discussions have said Ford and Carney had a handshake deal in which the province supported Carney’s high-speed rail plan in exchange for federal support for the airport expansion.
However, when asked Wednesday if he ever told Ford he would greenlight the project, Carney said no.
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