The Globe and Mail editorial supporting the Toronto Island Airport expansion (Proposed expansion of Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport deserves consideration, Fri. Apr. 12, 2013) is so simplistic that one may wonder if a student intern did not actually write that opinion piece.

Indeed, while the whole expansion controversy centers on noise pollution in the downtown area, the editorial claims “the Billy Bishop [airport] has contributed much to the quality of life for downtown residents.”

How can noise pollution contribute to quality of life?

For the record, the downtown airport planes can currently be heard all the way North in the Queen and Spadina area when the wind is blowing that way, so the nuisance actually extends beyond the lakefront communities. So any expansion, even with smoothly labelled “whisper jets”, noise disturbance will persist and increase with traffic.

Strangely, the editorial also touts that the airport is contributing to the vibrancy of the new lakefront neighbourhoods. (“The Billy Bishop Airport is a wonderful asset, a five-minute cab ride from Bay Street, and from the thousands of new condominium units that have sprung up, giving Toronto’s downtown a happening vibe.”)

Except for the line ups of taxi cabs outside of the airport, in the absence of any retail stores there, this begs again the question: how can increased traffic congestion, in addition to noise pollution, contribute to quality of life?

Similarly, the editorial proudly reminds us “No other major downtown in North America has an airport so close.” Well, have the Globe and Mail editors actually paused and wondered if the reason why no other urban area has an airport so close to dense neighbourhoods, is simply because it is bad urban planning and land use, due to the noise pollution negatively influencing quality of life? What if Toronto was the only urban centre making that mistake?

RAIL LINK TO PEARSON AIRPORT

As to the proximity of the airport to the downtown financial district near Bay Street, the editorial simply overlooks how a rail link from downtown to Pearson Airport is currently being built, providing a fast and reliable connection even during rush hour to a major hub and therefore drastically cutting the utility levels of the island airport.

On that note, investing in a tunnel to connect the island airport to the mainland could come across as a redundant and wasteful initiative, considering the rail link from downtown to Pearson (a rail service offered in any liveable urban centre with a great quality of life.) The tunnel money would actually better have been spent towards electrifying the Pearson airport rail link, ensuring a quicker acceptance by neighbourhoods along the way (instead, the trains will be powered by diesel…)

RICHARD FLORDIA: HIGH SPEED TRAIN AND MEGAREGIONS

Last and not least, the editorial is citing urban theorist Richard Florida to support the argument in favour of the island airport expansion (“as cities grow, airports grow even faster, speeding up the ‘urban metabolism.’”)

Richard Florida is actually a strong advocate of high-speed train corridors connecting megaregions. In this regard, Union Station, undergoing massive renovations to become a major transportation hub (including the airport rail link) is actually closer to Bay Street than to the Island Airport, while trains can be more reliable than planes in bad weather.

Even more simplistic is claiming that “It’s too late to slow the metabolism”, akin to telling an overweight person that he or she can’t lose weight or to governments strapped with looming budget deficits that they can’t go back to surpluses.

INCUBATOR AIRPORT FOR START-UP AIRLINES

In the end, while a new national airline would be welcome, maybe we should consider the island airport as an  “incubator for a start-up airline”.

Indeed, now that Porter Airlines has expanded and is ready to spread its wings across the continent, the company should now logically move its operations to the “grown ups” airport, that is Pearson International, and again its soon to be completed rail ink to downtown.

Because indeed, to paraphrase Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign “It’s the economy, stupid”, the whole Toronto Island Airport expansion issue centering on current and future noise pollution levels (let alone air pollution) is about the quality of life, stupid.

Even a high school student intern would probably know that…

Note: in addition to misunderstanding key health determinants contributing to quality of life, the Globe and Mail editorial seems to have overlooked what the real news was on that issue, in terms of transparency of the regulatory process. Indeed Toronto’s Mayor Rob Ford first expressed his support for the island airport expansion indicating Porter Airlines never lobbied him previously. However, later on, the Mayor acknowledged meeting with Porter CEO prior to the announcement of the airport expansion project

Charles-Antoine Rouyer is a Toronto-based independant journalist and course director at York University.