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If the Province expropriates Little Norway Park, will they be clearing future encampments?

  • Writer: BQNA
    BQNA
  • 2 days ago
  • 5 min read

By Bev Thorpe

May 20, 2026


Yesterday, on behalf of the BQNA, I raised these and other community concerns to the Standing Committee on Bill 110 - Building Billy Bishop Airport Act, 2026.


The Ontario government’s Bill 110 allows the Province to expropriate Little Norway Park and remove the city’s voice from major decisions affecting it. The Bill also removes the City of Toronto from the Tripartite Agreement that has shaped the relationship between the airport, the waterfront, the City of Toronto and surrounding communities for decades.


All of this will have big repercussions for the Bathurst Quay community, namely:

  • If the city has no oversight over our park, who will be responsible for park related problems such as new encampments?

  • If the City is removed from airport related issues, who do we now work with and how will the Province deal with local emergency response like the bomb scare we experienced on October 22, 2022?

  • Will future oversight of air pollution be deprioritized – considering that an expansion of aircraft will increase the levels of ultrafine particles into our community and the waterfront?


Read our submission and join our newsletter to keep up to date with events as they happen.


Little Norway Park. Our Parks. Our Waterfront.
Our Parks. Our Waterfront. Little Norway Park.

I am Beverley Thorpe, Chair of the Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association which represents the 2400 households who live closest to Billy Bishop Airport. I am submitting comments regarding Bill 110 Building Billy Bishop Airport Act, 2026 and its proposed changes to the Tripartite Agreement that governs this airport.


This submission will focus specifically on the impact to Little Norway Park and our community, and why the City of Toronto should remain a part of the Tripartite Agreement in any future build out of Billy Bishop Airport. I conclude with three specific recommendations for the Committee to take.


The Tripartite Agreement has shaped the relationship between the airport, the waterfront, the City of Toronto, and surrounding communities for decades. Bill 110 fundamentally changes that structure by removing the City of Toronto as a party to the agreement and replacing it with the Province.


This is a major governance change that will have big repercussions for the Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood, because our community is intrinsically bound to the airport. The airport terminal is situated in our neighbourhood and planes land and take off only 120 metres away across the Western Gap. Our mixed income neighbourhood contains a busy Waterfront Neighbourhood Centre, two daycares, two schools, multiple playgrounds and a much-loved basketball court as well as the iconic Ireland Park, and the new Corleck cultural centre. Little Norway Park is the center of our community and a much-needed green space for families and visitors.[1] The City worked hard to establish the Bathurst Quay Commons and recently restored the Canada Malting Silos as a tourist destination.


Our community has a long history working with our city councilors and City Planners. Residents are particularly concerned therefore, by the Province’s intention to expropriate Little Norway Park and remove the city’s voice from major decisions affecting it.


If the park is to remain as a park, as the Premier recently stated, then why does the province need to take it over? To what end? We have seen no plans for the park’s future or guarantees that it will not be paved over to allow a projected five-fold increase in passengers into this heavily congested part of the city. Our lived experience predicts this will result in frustrated passengers caught in a downtown gridlock.


Transferring ownership of Little Norway Park to the Province presents another concern for us. If the city has no oversight over our park, who will be responsible for park related problems as they arise?


For example, when encampments started to appear during Covid and increased over the next 3 years we held a large public meeting in November 2024 to seek solutions from the City.[2] This resulted in the City designating Little Norway Park as a Priority Area for rapid response within 48 hours. Over four months the City cleared 111 encampments, followed by ground remediation and waste clearance.[3] Residents now understand that any new encampment which may pop up in the park, will be quickly dealt with by the City.


With transfer of ownership to the province, who will respond quickly to the community? What will be the new accountability mechanism?


A second concern is how any future emergencies at the airport will be dealt with in the absence of City involvement. When our community was evacuated due to a bomb scare at the airport on October 22, 2022, it created mayhem.[4] We received no communication from the Toronto Port Authority and we were eventually told by police to vacate the area, but many elderly and people with disabilities had nowhere to go. Transportation, washroom facilities or food were not made available even though the all-clear was not made until after midnight.


This was a wakeup call for us about future emergencies at the airport and we strongly believe the City needs to be at the table. Indeed, it was the Toronto Office of Emergency Management who stepped up and worked with us to subsequently produce a Community Response Handbook which we are now distributing.


If the city is removed from airport related issues, who do we now work with and how will the province deal with local emergency response?


A final concern I want to raise up before our 3 recommendations, is the future oversight of air pollution. Four years of monitoring data by the University of Toronto confirmed that the airport is the most significant source of ultrafine pollutants (UFPs) into our community – sometimes exceeding the World Health Guidelines by two to three times.[5] The impacts of these results were covered extensively by CBC’s The National on April 15, 2026.[6] It was interesting to us that the airport was one of the partners in this research, together with the BQNA and Toronto Public Health, but the airport prevented access to researchers to conduct onsite monitoring, and when results were published in peer reviewed publications, they hired a consultant to deny the findings.[7] Recently, Dr Hatzopoulou, the Canada Research Chair and head of the Air Quality Research Group at the University of Toronto, stated that any increase in aircraft will increase the levels of UFPs into this part of the waterfront.[8]


We raise this because future air pollution outcomes under Bill 110 would depend heavily on the type of airport expansion and associated environmental assessment requirements – which the Province may decide not to prioritize. Yet the data does not lie and exposure will affect residents and tourists alike.


To this end, we ask that before the passing of Bill 110, that this committee recommend:

1. transparent publication of the legal and policy rationale for removing the City from the Tripartite Agreement, 2. public consultation with affected residents and stakeholders about the implications of Bill 110 to Little Norway Park, airport emergency planning, and future air pollution monitoring before this Bill is passed into law; and 3. commitment to conduct a publicly transparent cost benefit and environmental impact assessment before construction begins on any build out of BBTCA.

Thank you for considering this submission.


Beverley Thorpe

Chair, Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association, Toronto



Beverley Thorpe, Chair of the Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association presenting at the Standing Committee on Bill 110 - Building Billy Bishop Airport Act
Beverley Thorpe, Chair of the Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association presenting at the Standing Committee on Bill 110 - Building Billy Bishop Airport Act

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