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Pickering Airport (Transport Canada/GTAA, Proposed)

What we think is irrelevant. The bureaucrats who fund projects in the government and in the private sector will not fund this because:

1) Increases emissions compared to other alternatives.

2) No imminent need for the capacity, which means poor asset utilization and therefore return on capital.

A government that has money to spend on GTA infrastructure has so many priorities ahead of this in the region. And I've yet to see any private entity willing to foot the bill for this without substantial government subsidies, up to and including free land.

Lack of transit, wider roads, other crumbing infrastructure. In short, if you say it is $10 billion to build it, that's $10 billion that could be built in a vote rich area, as apposed to farmland.
 
It might make a nice down payment for HSR between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

Among other things. Now if it must be spent on an airport, I have heard there is an airport to the West that is lacking some infrastructure that would help it become as busy as Pearson is. Maybe it could go to that airport....
 
I took a ride through Pickering today and loved the gravel and winding concession roads, farms just nothingness. I say leave this alone. I'd love to buy an existing small house around here.

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great pictures, too bad the land is growing mostly industrial crops Instead of being more productive. parts of it is growing nothing at all. some of the leaseholders are not using the land at all, except possibly for storage . I fly over the land almost ever week, it is part of the local practice area for the flight school ( one of my three part time flying gigs).

Oh, btw Nice ride.

Some pictures of the Pickering lands I took last week With a higher viewpoint. Enjoy.


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Airplane wheat
It’s a billion dollar public asset. It should be productively creating jobs, tax revenue and a return for the Canadian tax payer who purchased it. Or it should be sold back to private farmers and investors. It should not be used as a private reserve for a select few, or a reward the politically connected, or a McMansion sub division.

Time for transparency and to get our moneys worth by letting free enterprise work it’s manic magic with a new airport. That should cost the tax payer very little, create hundreds of millions in tax revenue and create 50,000 jobs.

What this land should grow is prosperity for all. Along the way we can have lots of fun rubbing the noses of the aviation hate mongers into the dust... because aviation is the most Carbon and time efficient form of transportation for most Canadians to travel long distances.
 
It’s a billion dollar public asset. It should be productively creating jobs, tax revenue and a return for the Canadian tax payer who purchased it. Or it should be sold back to private farmers and investors. It should not be used as a private reserve for a select few, or a reward the politically connected, or a McMansion sub division.

Time for transparency and to get our moneys worth by letting free enterprise work it’s manic magic with a new airport. That should cost the tax payer very little, create hundreds of millions in tax revenue and create 50,000 jobs.

What this land should grow is prosperity for all. Along the way we can have lots of fun rubbing the noses of the aviation hate mongers into the dust... because aviation is the most Carbon and time efficient form of transportation for most Canadians to travel long distances.

Because growing food for people to eat is something land must not be used for.....
 
Clipped and emphasis added by me
Consider what is not said. The report repeats claims of farming value from a lobby group with no challenge to those claims. Talks to two front persons with a single residential lease, plus 3 acres of farm land, but fails to report that the other 9000 acres are leases by largely unknown persons and corporations from which the lobby groups funding is derive. Much of this land is farmed but thousands of acres are not, including a golf course ( glen cedar), truck parks, even a hang glider school. these commercial leases have no transparency but are part of the groups efforts to take advantage of the economic downturn caused by the pandemic to extend these leases.

consider:

-there is a long Waiting list for these leases.

- If an airport is not build as suggested by the KPMG report starting in 2026, and the leases are extended, why should those that now have those lease be allowed to Keep them?

-Is allowing the current lease holder to develop the land the best use of this land?

- hiding behind vitrue signally, such as the environment, food security, etc is the new blind spot in which corruption lurks. Who are the leaseholders?

- no one ( including the city) is spending money to counter this Misinformation, the only group with a voice is a group of volunteers with zero budget, trying to protect a billion dollar government land reserve for its original purpose ( the Friends of Pickering Airport ).

welcome to total lack of transparency that now passes as news.

I post on this forum from time to time because I truly believe that those reading can learn the art of critical thinking, what ever political affiliation. Put the phone down and look around, Apply the art of critical thought.
and
great pictures, too bad the land is growing mostly industrial crops Instead of being more productive. parts of it is growing nothing at all. some of the leaseholders are not using the land at all, except possibly for storage . I fly over the land almost ever week, it is part of the local practice area for the flight school ( one of my three part time flying gigs).
clipped

Which is it Mark? Are the lands being used for "something"? Remember it is not for you to judge whether the use is for an RV park, golf course, hang glider school, or auto wrecking yard, as long as it's being used it's being used. Or are they being left fallow for this season as part of a crop rotation system, or has the land actually been 'abandoned' and 'unused'.
 
It is time to bury the argument that farmland is somehow undeveloped. Farming is development and utilization and as important a resource to Canada and its citizens as any other. Much of the Pickering Airport site is Class 1 Farmland - the scarcest farming commodity in Canada, and the Class of farmland most under pressure from unrestrained envelopment in Southern Ontario. There is a long term and strong case for preserving and protecting agricultural lands for agricultural uses. And ensuring that the land is used for agricultural purposes, not outdoor storage yards, monster home set offs etc. That policy could and should be as strong and definitive a policy as the Greenbelt, provincial and national parks etc. (With time there are plenty of stats on Ontario and Canadian farmland, its use, abuse, and rates of disappearance)

This "Pickering" money could be better spent on improving Pearson, links to Pearson, facilitating the use of existing airports (Hamilton), and other regional transportation options.

There is simply no need for another airport, except in development community, which appears to be ably represented on this thread.
 
It is time to bury the argument that farmland is somehow undeveloped. Farming is development and utilization and as important a resource to Canada and its citizens as any other. Much of the Pickering Airport site is Class 1 Farmland - the scarcest farming commodity in Canada, and the Class of farmland most under pressure from unrestrained envelopment in Southern Ontario. There is a long term and strong case for preserving and protecting agricultural lands for agricultural uses. And ensuring that the land is used for agricultural purposes, not outdoor storage yards, monster home set offs etc. That policy could and should be as strong and definitive a policy as the Greenbelt, provincial and national parks etc. (With time there are plenty of stats on Ontario and Canadian farmland, its use, abuse, and rates of disappearance)

This "Pickering" money could be better spent on improving Pearson, links to Pearson, facilitating the use of existing airports (Hamilton), and other regional transportation options.

There is simply no need for another airport, except in development community, which appears to be ably represented on this thread.

That doesn't work for his little planes.
 
Because growing food for people to eat is something land must not be used for.....
We can have both, you know. The airport's not going to cover 4 million square miles. There'll be a lot of Canada left.
 

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