Toronto Port Authority disbands their Community Liaison Committee (CLC)

The Toronto Port Authority has disbanded the Community Liaison Committee (CLC) which played a vital role in community engagement since its formation in 2010. We were given no reason why this decision was taken and we have written to the Vice President asking for the CLC to be reinstated. TPA's noise sub-committee have also learned that future meetings of the Ground Noise Study are on hold. Read our letter below.

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April 7, 2026

Warren Askew

Vice President, Airport, Toronto Port Authority

Dear Warren,

Your letter to the Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association Chair regarding the sudden cancellation of future Community Liaison meetings came as a surprise to Bev Thorpe and myself as BQNA’s representatives on Ports Toronto’s CLC. After 15 years and 60 meetings, it would be unfair to dismantle the important role the Community Liaison has for community engagement. We subsequently found out that your announcement of the CLC being disbanded was also sent to other CLC stakeholders.

This is truly regrettable because the CLC has played a vital role in community engagement since its formation in 2010. At that time, the CLC was formed at the request by the BQNA to enable better communication between the airport and our community when tunnel construction from our community to the airport was set to begin. At each juncture of the airport’s advancement in the ensuing years, BQNA representatives have attended CLC meetings and contributed in various collaborative ways, including inviting Billy Bishop Airport to join the BQN Air Quality study, conducted by the University of Toronto plus initiating a community public forum on evacuation procedures necessitated by the airport bomb scare in 2022. This resulted in our City Councillor engaging with the Toronto Emergency Management on a community preparedness plan and a parallel airport committee which you indeed refer to in your letter.

With BBTCA in the Bathurst Quay Community, we have always felt that dialogue between neighbours is an essential part of our mandate to safeguard our community’s health and safety. Now that the Toronto Port Authority is supporting Doug Ford’s call for jets at the airport and his expropriation of city held land, it is vital that we be kept informed of decisions that affect not only our residents, but airport employees and support workers, never mind the 18 million visitors who come to the waterfront each year.

The BQNA has written a position paper stating four reasons why we object to jets at the airport and this has been submitted to our elected representatives and shared widely with Canadians across the country. We are not alone in our opinion; even current airport clients have voiced concern over the airport becoming less attractive should it lose the benefit of a smaller commuter and general aviation airport.

Yet, we now have no forum in which to discuss this. In effect BBTCA and Toronto Ports Authority have shut off all communication. Your letter indicates that you remain committed to engaging with residents on key community issues. But we still await news about the TPA’s new air quality study and we still await updates about the introduction of a Hovercraft docking site in the Western Gap. That is why the BQNA is asking you to reinstate the Community Liaison Committee meetings as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your consideration and we look forward to your response.

Sincerely.

Joan Prowse

BQNA rep

Community Liaison Committee

Arcadia Housing Co-operative

Beverley Thorpe

BQNA Chair

Community Liaison Committee Alternate

Atrium on Queens Quay Condominiums

CC

Geoffrey Mosher, Lura Consulting

Jay Paleja, Waterfront Secretariat, City of Toronto

Chi Nguyễn, MP Spadina Harbourfront

Councillor Ausma Malik, Spadina Fort York

Hal Beck, CLC Noise sub-committee, YQNA

The Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood is directly across the Western Gap, 400 ft. from BBTCA airport