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e-4213 (Transportation)
- Keywords
- Airports
- Georgina
- Landfill sites
Original language of petition: English
Petition to the Minister of Transport
- The Baldwin East aerodrome has been approved by Transport Canada and the Minister of Transportation to be built in the Town of Georgina on Old Homestead Road;
- Numerous concerns have been raised regarding the environmental impacts and operational limitations of the site for an aerodrome;
- 97% of respondents who participated in the consultation process – including the Town of Georgina, the Chippewas of Georgina Island, and York Region – objected to the proposal;
- Despite being built on provincially significant wetlands, a groundwater recharge area, and highly-vulnerable aquifers and woodlands, the aerodrome has been designed to specifically avoid a required assessment by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada;
- The principles of the Baldwin East aerodrome have been involved in the waste management industry and have been cited by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment for dumping contaminated fill;
- The proponents plan to dump 1.2 million cubic metres of fill (120,000 truck loads) on to the site without limitation or testing; and
- There have been numerous instances of corporations using the pretense of building an aerodrome under federal jurisdiction to lucratively dump fill without scrutiny by municipal and provincial authorities.
Response by the Minister of Transport
Signed by (Minister or Parliamentary Secretary): The Honourable Omar Alghabra
Transport Canada is aware of the concerns raised by those who have signed the petition.
Transport Canada and the Minister of Transport do not grant approvals with respect to the building of aerodromes. No permission from the department or the Minister of Transport are required under the current regulatory regime therefore, the aerodrome has not been approved by Transport Canada nor the Minister of Transport, as stated in the petition. Rather, Transport Canada ensures that specific regulatory requirements, including those related to the consultation requirements set out in the Canadian Aviation Regulations Part III, Subpart VII (307), have been met.
An aerodrome proponent is not absolved from complying with provincial or municipal laws that do not conflict with the federal aeronautics regime. In practical terms, this means a municipality or province can apply its laws with respect to the use of fill to an aerodrome project, so long as doing so does not have the effect of negatively impacting the viability or the operations of the proposed aerodrome.
A formal request to the Minister of Transport to prohibit the development of the aerodrome under subsection 4.32(1) of the Aeronautics Act has been received from Member of Parliament for York-Simcoe, Ontario Minister of Transportation and Member of Provincial Parliament for York-Simcoe, Mayor of the Town of Georgina, Chief of Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation, and Advocacy Chair for the Pefferlaw Ratepayers Association. The decision to make an order to restrict or prohibit the development of an aerodrome under subsection 4.32(1) of the Aeronautics Act requires that the objectives and purposes of the Act be weighed against the particular facts of each case so that the Minister can determine whether a given aerodrome development project is likely to adversely affect aviation safety or is not in the public interest.
Transport Canada is also aware that a formal request has been made to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to designate the project under subsection 9(1) of the Impact Assessment Act.
The aforementioned processes will unfold in due course.
- Open for signature
- December 13, 2022, at 3:37 p.m. (EDT)
- Closed for signature
- March 13, 2023, at 3:37 p.m. (EDT)
- Presented to the House of Commons
-
Scot Davidson
(York—Simcoe)
March 21, 2023 (Petition No. 441-01189) - Government response tabled
- May 4, 2023
