The Pickering Airport Lands are parcels of lands owned by the Government of Canada located in York Region and Durham Region in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario. The lands, totaling approximately and located approximately east of Downtown Toronto, were expropriated in 1972 by the federal government for use as the site of a second international airport to serve the city of Toronto, its metropolitan area, and the surrounding Golden Horseshoe region. There was local opposition to an airport from the day of the original announcement.
Plans for an airport were developed during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The 1972 announcement affected properties in Pickering, Uxbridge, and Markham townships in York and Durham Regions. Residents were forced to leave as demolitions of houses and barns began. Preliminary airport construction activity was halted in 1975 when the provincial partner in the enterprise, the Government of Ontario, declared it would not build the roads or sewers needed to service the site. Despite later attempts by the federal government to revive the project, construction activities never resumed, and no operator was selected. Instead, one-year leases were offered to tenants for residential, commercial, and agricultural uses. Eventually, more than half the site was transferred to Parks Canada, to form the Rouge National Urban Park.
In the decades that followed the shelving of the airport project, the federal government commissioned a number of studies to assess future aviation needs in southern Ontario. The most recent was announced in April 2023. By then, the potential future airport site had been reduced to approximately 3,521 hectares (8,700 acres).
On January 27, 2025, the federal government officially cancelled all plans for the Pickering Airport and is instead looking at transferring the remaining lands to the Rouge National Urban Park.
History
Initial proposal, expropriation, and abandonment In the late 1960s, the federal government (which then owned and operated all major Canadian airports) studied expanding Malton Airport (now Toronto Pearson International Airport) to accommodate the tremendous growth in air passenger traffic anticipated in the coming decades. Strong local-community opposition to Malton's expansion caused the government to decide instead, in December 1968, to build a second Toronto airport. An Airport Planning Team spent 1969 evaluating nearly 60 sites within a 50-nautical-mile radius of Malton. The final contenders were Lake Scugog, Lake Simcoe, Orangeville, and Guelph, with the Guelph site ranked highest.https://archive.org/details/paperjuggernaut00walt page 41
In May 1971, in a Toronto-Centred Region plan, the provincial government announced its intention to direct new growth to the east of Toronto. This eastern emphasis became a cause of friction between the federal and provincial governments: the federal government preferred an airport location to the west, the province wanted an eastern site. In an attempt to resolve the impasse, the federal government proposed a plan to build three new airports instead of one. Two small 2,000–4,000 hectare (5,000–10,000 acre) airports would be built to handle short-haul traffic, on sites previously eliminated as unsuitable for a large airport. The first of these small airports would be constructed in the west, in Beverly Township, near Hamilton, followed immediately by the second one in the east, in Pickering Township. A third airport – a large 6,000–8,000 hectare (15,000–20,000 acre) international airport – would be built later, at an undetermined location. In December 1971, the province told the federal government that it could not afford to service both a Beverly and a Pickering site and that it had committed funds to build sewer and water facilities only to the east of Toronto.
The federal government abandoned its plan for three new airports and decided instead to build one large international airport east of Toronto. On March 2, 1972, the federal Minister of Transport announced the construction of a "major airport" in Pickering, while the Treasurer of the Province of Ontario simultaneously announced plans for a new satellite city, called Cedarwood, to be built immediately south of the airport.Slinger, John. "Terminal open by 1979: City of 200,000 to rise near airport in Pickering" (March 3, 1972). Globe and Mail, p. 1. The federal government expropriated about 7,530 hectares (18,600 acres) of farmland for the airport, as well as the village of Brougham and the hamlet of Altona.
Expropriation went ahead despite widespread public opposition and the Province's ongoing concerns. In September 1975, airport construction was halted when the Government of Ontario withdrew its agreement to provide the necessary infrastructure for the site. A similar major land expropriation had taken place in 1969, north of Montreal, for Montréal–Mirabel International Airport. Phase I of Mirabel opened in 1975, the same year that construction on the Pickering project was stopped. The federal government retained its ownership of the lands expropriated for the Pickering airport, reserving the option to revive the project at some point in the future.
Project revival attempts After the shelving of the airport in 1975, the federal government began to lease the site's farmland and houses to tenants, some of them former owners of the properties. This practice continued, and there were no significant developments until 2001, when Transport Canada resurrected the airport idea and commissioned the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) to "undertake interim planning work that would enable the federal government to determine if it should proceed with a regional/reliever airport on the Pickering Lands". In 2002, the federal government announced a plan to preserve 3,051 hectares (7,540 acres) of the site, no longer needed for the airport, as green space in perpetuity, providing a corridor of land connecting the Rouge Park with the Oak Ridges Moraine. Management and protection details of the Federal Green Space plan were never formalized. On September 30, 2004, site zoning regulations were passed for an airport on the Federal Lands in Pickering. In November 2004, the GTAA submitted its Pickering Airport Draft Plan Report to Transport Canada. The plan was for a large three-runway reliever airport but also referred referred to the long history of agricultural activity on the Pickering lands and noted that the "fertile soils have led to the majority of the land being classified as Class 1 or 2 in the Canada Land Inventory soil capability classification for agriculture".
The draft plan went into limbo when Transport Canada announced on May 9, 2007,Transport Canada that the GTAA had now been commissioned to complete "a needs assessment study for a potential Pickering airport". The Needs Assessment Study: Pickering Lands, Final Report was submitted to Transport Canada in March 2010. After a "due diligence review", Transport Canada released the report to the public on July 11, 2011.GTAA. "Needs Assessment Study: Pickering Lands, Final Report" (2010) The study concluded that an additional airport would be needed "but it is not expected to be required before 2027 and possibly not before 2037". The study recommended that the federal government "retain and protect the site, thereby preserving the option of building an airport, if and when required".GTAA. "Needs Assessment Study: Pickering Lands, Final Report"(2010), 12-9
The Canadian Owners and Pilots Association of private plane owners and pilots, took exception to the methodology and conclusions of the study, arguing that "the process to implement a new airport at Pickering should be well underway right now".Canadian Owners and Pilots Association, Review of the GTAA "Needs Assessment Study – Pickering Lands" (2011), 4.4, p. 52. Transport Action Ontario, in its own response to the study report, questioned some of the study's claims and suggested that, in lieu of building a new airport, "higher-speed, electrified rail" would be a "far superior alternative" for much of the short-haul traffic currently handled by Pearson Airport.Transport Action Ontario, "Response to: Transport Canada Needs Assessment Study – Pickering Lands" (February 2014), p.2.
On June 11, 2013, the federal finance minister, Jim Flaherty, announced revised plans for the Pickering airport lands, stating that the Government of Canada would set aside an area in the southeast, of about 3,500 hectares (8,700 acres), for a future airport that would be needed in the 2027–2037 time-frame.Transport Canada, Press Release, June 11, 2013; About 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) in York Region would be transferred to Parks Canada, to become part of the new Rouge National Urban Park. The remaining land, approximately 2,000 hectares (4,900 acres), was earmarked for economic development. The Harper government's announcement also reaffirmed the federal government’s intention to hold land on the site for a future airport, stating that the needs assessment study's conclusion was that the airport would be required within the 2027–2037 time-frame.Cf. Transport Canada, Press Release, June 11, 2013.
On April 1, 2015, Transport Canada formally transferred to Parks Canada a total of 1,911 hectares (4,722 acres) of the Federal Lands, as the first tract of land to be part of the new park,Parks Canada, Press Release , March 31, 2015; where agriculture would be one of the central pillars.
Three months later, on July 11, 2015, Prime Minister Harper announced an additional 2,100 hectares (5,200 acres), in Pickering and Uxbridge, would soon be transferred to the Rouge National Urban Park. This meant that over half the farmland, streams, and natural habitat expropriated in 1972–1973 would be permanently protected. The Prime Minister also said that the federal government intended to use the remaining lands for economic development, adding: "But let there be no doubt. Our Government will only support projects on these lands, including an airport, if they are backed by a sound business plan and if they are in the best interests of this community."Prime Minister of Canada, Speech , July 11, 2015.
On July 13, 2015, Lisa Raitt, the federal Minister of Transport, while confirming that no decisions had been made on the development or timing of a potential future airport, reaffirmed that the remaining lands were being retained for economic development, including a potential future airport. She also indicated that an independent advisor would be appointed to consult with local public and private interests on potential economic opportunities on the site, including a future airport, and would report back to the government within 12 months. Meanwhile, Transport Canada would assess future aviation needs across the Greater Golden Horseshoe to determine if there was a business case for a Pickering airport.Transport Canada, Press Release, July 13, 2015.
Five dates later, on July 18, 2015, Transport Canada released a draft of revised Pickering Airport Site Zoning Regulations for the retained lands, to ensure that development on surrounding lands remained compatible with a potential future airport site.Transport Canada, Public Notice - Proposed Regulations For The Federally-Owned Pickering Lands, July 20, 2015. No final version was ever released.