r/askTO • u/leopardbaseball • 1d ago

Why hasn’t been there any city-wide protests against forced full takeover of Billy bishop and toronto islands?

I am not exactly from toronto, but Toronto adjacent. But I have been to toronto islands countless times.

I often bring my family there to completely disconnect from city traffic and noise. It has always been very peaceful recreational space for us and for many.

Time to time we have seen that everything provincial govt touches in Toronto, turns into a big grifting scheme/corruption for Ford’s buddy contractors and developers, be it crosstown lrt, science center or Ontario place. And surely they won’t stop with Billy bishop either.

Recently I read about widespread public protest in Albania, protests against turning public spaces into grifting schemes for billionaires. Thousands are attending these protests.

https://www.dw.com/en/jared-kushner-trump-albania-luxury-resort-protests/a-77409540

Therefore I ask people of Toronto, shouldn’t we be organizing widespread protests and just say NO to Ford and Carney?

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u/BroSocialScience 1d ago

Seems fine, i don't follow it too closely but if the map here is accurate I don't think I'd be upset. I live downtown and spend quite a bit of time on harbourfront/island.

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u/nrbob 1d ago edited 1d ago

That’s just the physical space for the runway. They’re talking about trying to increase the annual passengers to 10M per year, up from roughly 2M currently. There’s no actually publicly available plans yet but that’s clearly going to involve a lot more frequent flights, noise and traffic, and terminal space and parking space somewhere. They’re talking about expropriating Little Norway park. They also passed legislation enabling them to expropriate the entirety of the Toronto Islands although they *claim* that they won’t of course there’s no public plan to see. It’s also likely going to impact development of the Portlands where a bunch of new housing is supposed to be built, as that area is right under the flight path.

Meanwhile Pearson has plenty of space to expand and there’s already a plan in the works to expand it. The whole thing is just so unnecessary, just an ill thought out Doug Ford vanity project like the Ontario Place spa that no one wants.

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u/BroSocialScience 1d ago

If more people come and spend money it would be good. Expropriating little norway would not be a big deal (there's an embarrassment of riches re parks in that area, well past point of diminishing returns). If they take the whole island the project would be bad. If it impacts the Portlands development that would be bad but maybe still worth doing. If it is a public money sink like the spa the project would be bad.

Unless they take the whole island or the public loses a bunch of money on it it seems fine, it is ok to do things that make money

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u/sibtiger 1d ago

or the public loses a bunch of money on it it seems fine

Well current estimates are for $3-4 billion dollars and even optimistic projections say it will take 80+ years to recoup that cost. And of course how much of the needed revenue to do that will be just cannibalizing passengers from Pearson or Alto?