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We should levy a small payroll tax on every PR / communications role and use the proceeds to set up endowments to support local journalism

Great piece by Cllr Matlow that lays out the impossibility of 10 million passengers flying through Billy Bishop without a huge expansion of the airport footprint. Also rightly says huge public costs - both public funds & degrading the public waterfront - would not be offset by any public benefit.

Parts of Spokane now under evacuation orders due to fast approaching wildfire I hope we can send help @kellyrichmondbc.bsky.social @davidebybc.bsky.social I again urge @eleanorolszewski.bsky.social to invest in speeding 🇨🇦 CL-515 production to save lives, homes, & as a priceless diplomatic asset

A remarkable chart from Justin Taylor showing the steady decay of TTC streetcar speeds from 2000 to 2025 on all routes with available data

Good to see investment in passenger rail and having Stadler build a factory here should be good news over the long term in terms of creating more choice for buyers and shifting away from US production www.thestar.com/business/cp-...

Feds to spend $1.9B to replace Via Rail locomotive fleet, build plantThe deal will create 1,200 new full-time jobs and the hybrid trains will be built with Canadian-made batteries, according to Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon.www.thestar.com

This is silly, of course, but if the province wants to try and use Alto as a bargaining chip (despite a weak constitutional hand over railway regulation) here’s hoping the feds offer to extend it to Kitchener or for the Ontario portions to be sped up www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Ontario rethinking support for high-speed rail after feds reject Billy Bishop expansion: source | CBC NewsThe federal government's rejection of a plan to allow commercial jets at Toronto's Billy Bishop Airport is threatening a wedge between the Ford government and Ottawa — and potentially strengthening op...www.cbc.ca

A thoughtful piece to which I would add only one thing: Beyond a general dislike of this plan, the greenbelt debacle has conditioned many of us to be especially allergic to surprise regulatory changes that - wouldn’t you know it!- stand to enrich private assets owners with well-connected lobbyists.

The core of housing NIMBYism is setting a nearly illusory private benefit (having fewer neighbours) above the very real public cost of blocking new homes The opposite is true for the airport plan: It would impose huge costs on the public with nearly all the benefit going to the private proponent.

A central lesson of the island airport debacle, like that of the Greenbelt before it, is that when private owners of assets like greenbelt farmlands, small airport terminals, etc., can achieve windfall gains from the removal of regulations, they will have a very strong incentive to lobby regulators…

Biidaasige Park makes a beatiful template for what Billy Bishop Park could look like in a decade or less Let’s turn the Port Authority into the Toronto Island Park Authority or fold it into Waterfront Toronto Until we irrevocably close the Airport the TPA plans for its expansion remain a threat

As everyone celebrates the defeat of the Ford plan to expand the Island Airport, spare a thought for how this may also make Pierre Poilievre sad, as he approved of this absurd plan while opposing high speed rail. Sorry Mr. Poilievre, but the downtown jet plan is dead and high speed rail is alive! 🎉