The federal government will not support the province's plan to expand Toronto's Billy Bishop Airport, a decision that halts a contentious push to bring jet service to the downtown island airport on the city's waterfront. The move brings a measure of resolution to a saga that had pitted the province against the city and drawn strong public opposition over the future of the lakeside site.
In setting out its position, Ottawa said it would focus exclusively on approved safety enhancements already underway at the airport, rather than pursuing the broader expansion. It also said it would not pursue any plans that infringe on treasured public spaces, signalling that concerns over the waterfront setting weighed heavily on the outcome of the review.
The federal government pointed to a public consultation as central to the decision, noting that the process had drawn more than 7,000 responses. Officials said the consultation confirmed that Torontonians were against the idea of expanding the island airport, giving the government a clear public mandate to reject the plan as it stood.
The reversal comes months after Premier Doug Ford began the process of expanding the downtown airport's runways, a change that would have allowed jets to operate there. The provincial push had set up a clash with the city over control of the site and over what kind of aviation the compact island airport should be allowed to accommodate in the years ahead.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow welcomed the decision, thanking the Prime Minister and the Minister of Transportation for listening to the people of Toronto. She framed the outcome as a win for residents who had pushed back against the expansion and who had wanted a greater say over the future of the waterfront and the island airport.
With the expansion no longer moving forward, Chow said she is now calling on the province to return the city's land, shifting the next phase of the fight toward reclaiming control of the site. The mayor cast the demand as the logical follow-up to a decision that removes the rationale for the province's earlier takeover of the city's role.
For now, the federal decision draws a line under the expansion debate, leaving the airport to proceed only with the safety upgrades already approved. Attention is expected to turn to how the land question is resolved between the city and the province, and to what the ruling means for the long-term role of the island airport on Toronto's waterfront.