The Ford government is being accused of walking away from its responsibility to improve remote airports in northern Ontario.
Kiiwetinoong’s Sol Mamakwa says the Ministry of Transportation is no longer a member of a regional committee that lobbied the government earlier this year.
The Northern Ontario Aviation Committee (NOAC) was restarted by regional air carriers two years ago to help address issues impacting air services in northern Ontario.
Several government agencies have also been members, including the MTO until recently.
“The Ministry of Transportation’s Remote Airports Office in Thunder Bay walked away from the Northern Ontario Aviation Committee at the same time, this government is forcing an expansion to Billy Bishop Airport that nobody asked for,” stated Mamakwa in the Ontario Legislature on Wednesday.
“Why is this government walking away from their responsibility to improve air transportation in northern Ontario?”
While sidestepping the question of the MTO’s involvement in NOAC, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Transportation, Hardeep Singh Grewal, addressed the importance of the Billy Bishop Airport in Toronto and the benefits it will provide to northern Ontario.
“I had the opportunity to talk to many people from the north during committee hearings, and the conversations that we were having were all about how this is going to expand air transportation, not only for those individuals who are travelling down from the north to Toronto to have medical appointments, visits, their friends and family, go to sporting events and games,” said Grewal.
“It’s also going to help hospitals send more doctors up into the north and bring more patients and doctors back down into the airport and utilize that between Toronto and downtown Toronto’s core.”
In an email to Acadia News, a spokesperson for the MTO indicates that $24.9 million is being spent during the 2025-26 fiscal year to ensure the 29 remote airports in Ontario’s Far North are safe, compliant, and dependable.
They also mention that two studies are underway that will guide future upgrades and long-term investment in those airports.
No mention was given to the MTO’s involvement in NOAC.
