[Bureaucromancer]

Honestly, while I would have been OK with the airport this is FINE... but really should also be the end of the attempts to shut down Billy Bishop, and does beg for a serious look at what we intend for GA (Oshawa seems fine to me on that point).

 

[kEiThZ]

GA needs to be consolidated in the GTA. Buttonville, Oshawa and Markham are hemmed in by development.

 

[lenaitch]

GA needs to be consolidated in the GTA. Buttonville, Oshawa and Markham are hemmed in by development.

Buttonville is gone. Yes, Oshawa is quite hemmed-in. Brampton is not bad. I had forgotten about Markham. Pretty basic, not hemmed-in but I don't know what the property size or zoning is.

 

[kEiThZ]

Buttonville is gone. Yes, Oshawa is quite hemmed-in. Brampton is not bad. I had forgotten about Markham. Pretty basic, not hemmed-in but I don't know what the property size or zoning is.

Honestly I would rather see the Island, Markham, Oshawa and even Brampton consolidated at one large GA airport north or east in the GTA (best place to stay out of the way of Pearson ops). I wouldn't have minded a GA airport in Pickering. But I guess it's too much of a slippery slope to ending up with a commercial airport. I suspect a lot of that traffic will eventually move to Peterborough, Waterloo, Hamilton and the Island if Oshawa, Markham and Brampton end up closing.

 

[Adjei]

What they should do is make it easier for people from the eastern GTA to use transit to reach Pearson. That proposed rail line from Burlington to Oshawa passing through Pearson should be accelerated.

 

[KingJames]

Time to promote YHM as a passenger alternative. I have said it elsewhere, Canada needs to allow non-Canadian airlines to be allowd to fly between secondary airports in Canada . We as Canadians deserve some real competition.

 

[micheal_can]

Something to add is that it is not just the eastern GTA, or even the GTA Or Golden Horseshoe we need to make better to access YYZ, but it is the cities in Ontario that fly to it that could be done by rail. That means having Via running along the Corridor such that someone from London or even Windsor could make the first flights out. That also means daily service to cities outside of the Corridor. Yes,I am talking about North Bay(Which will be served by the Northlander),Sudbury and SSM. If wei ignore the flits between YYZ and Ottawa and Montreal and look at the rest, if we can remove those, or even cut them down and allow that slot to be used by another flight from much further away, it makes more sense than another airport. If we add Ottawa and Montreal to the mix, and cut those flights in half, Pearson will not reach capacity in that foreseeable future. To make that happen, the UPX would also need to become more frequent. To make short haul flying obsolete, we need a robust intercity rail system, and that is one thing we do not have.

 

[lenaitch]

Honestly I would rather see the Island, Markham, Oshawa and even Brampton consolidated at one large GA airport north or east in the GTA (best place to stay out of the way of Pearson ops). I wouldn't have minded a GA airport in Pickering. But I guess it's too much of a slippery slope to ending up with a commercial airport. I suspect a lot of that traffic will eventually move to Peterborough, Waterloo, Hamilton and the Island if Oshawa, Markham and Brampton end up closing.

It's parallel problems. Private airfields are always vulnerable to the owners staring at a bag of cash for the land. There are a few municipalities still in airport-owning business (i.e. Simcoe County). The province isn't into it except up north and everybody gets the shotguns out if the feds start assembling land.

If it is too small a footprint, it runs the risk of getting hemmed down the road (and restricts itself to what it can accommodate) but if it's a large footprint everyone gets nervous.

 

[Metroscapes]

I'll jump in here and highlight the key wording used in the federal government's and Pickering Mayor's announcements: "intent to transfer high-conservation-value lands to Parks Canada."

I don't know about you folks but that's a far cry from all of the lands planning to be transferred. And the pressure will be there, below is what Pickering's Official Plan looks like. Airport Lands are light blue with hexagons, and right up to its southern edge is employment lands.

I can see, at minimum, the lands in the Rouge Watershed going to the park. But with the Greenbelt in northeast Pickering and north Whitby / Oshawa only starting north of roughly 8th Concession, I can see this unlocking a bunch of new land for development.

 

[turbanplanner]

Honestly I would rather see the Island, Markham, Oshawa and even Brampton consolidated at one large GA airport north or east in the GTA (best place to stay out of the way of Pearson ops). I wouldn't have minded a GA airport in Pickering. But I guess it's too much of a slippery slope to ending up with a commercial airport. I suspect a lot of that traffic will eventually move to Peterborough, Waterloo, Hamilton and the Island if Oshawa, Markham and Brampton end up closing.

I disagree, also Buttonville is closed unless you meant cnu8. Having all training at one airport (which is the majority of GA traffic) would cause a lot of headaches. Also there is a surprisingly large population of international students training here, any new development would probably have piss poor transit options. (coughs in Brampton)

Time to promote YHM as a passenger alternative. I have said it elsewhere, Canada needs to allow non-Canadian airlines to be allowd to fly between secondary airports in Canada . We as Canadians deserve some real competition.

Air Canada asked for this, the only caveat is obviously they'd like to run cabotage in the US to which the Americans said no as they'd have a competitor with much lower salaries.

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

Hamilton's location is problematic. Hard to get to from Hamilton and other municipalities along the Southern shore of lake ONT and Western GTA. Waterloo might be the better option, easy access to the 401, and surrounding municipalities

 

[micheal_can]

Hamilton's location is problematic. Hard to get to from Hamilton and other municipalities along the Southern shore of lake ONT and Western GTA. Waterloo might be the better option, easy access to the 401, and surrounding municipalities

Right now, that is a correct thing. If the province wanted to, they could figure out how to make it more accessible by road and rail. Maybe this announcement will be followed by that kind of announcement.

 

[ericmacm]

Hamilton's location is problematic. Hard to get to from Hamilton and other municipalities along the Southern shore of lake ONT and Western GTA. Waterloo might be the better option, easy access to the 401, and surrounding municipalities

Agreed. YKF has much greater potential for accessibility. Direct freeway access is difficult right now, but being on HWY 401 is a huge plus, which could be improved significantly with the future HWY 6/HWY 7 projects. There is also really good potential for GO access, which YHM does not have. Waterloo Region recommends a GO spur south to YKF as a possible corridor for protection post-2041.

 

[Mr.Tang]

I assume this is going to be an unpopular take - but could it not help with our housing crisis? It need not be sprawling low density housing to push back against the "more urban sprawl" torches and pitchforks crowd. I am not deep enough in the topic to understand the infrastructure needs that would go along with it (roads/sewers/schools/etc) if that is a legitimate issue.

 

[turbanplanner]

I assume this is going to be an unpopular take - but could it not help with our housing crisis? It need not be sprawling low density housing to push back against the "more urban sprawl" torches and pitchforks crowd. I am not deep enough in the topic to understand the infrastructure needs that would go along with it (roads/sewers/schools/etc) if that is a legitimate issue.

If you want another "urban" neighborhood from scratch there has to be a master plan and vision. I think out of all the regions in the world the GTA has the most piss poor excuse of planning where developers control 100% of the design and now pay 0% of the costs due to Doug Fords new development laws.

Where else would this count as a transit oriented community?