Ontario Threatens To Cancel High-Speed Rail Because Ottawa Won't Let A Small Airport Get Bigger
Queen's Park has reportedly cooled on high-speed rail between Toronto and Quebec City after the federal government declined to let Billy Bishop Airport extend its runway, a manoeuvre best described as threatening to cancel your gym membership because the neighbour won't move his fence.
The logic is elegant. Ontario wants jets to leave from an island 800 metres from the downtown core. Ottawa said no. Ontario's response is to withhold support for a train that would remove the need for those jets entirely. It is the transportation policy equivalent of refusing dessert to punish someone who wouldn't give you soup.
A source familiar with the file explained that the province views the two projects as "linked," which is true in the sense that both involve moving people between cities, and false in every other sense. High-speed rail has been announced by five consecutive governments and built by zero. Billy Bishop's runway has been debated since 2013 and lengthened by zero metres. Each file exists mainly to be traded for the other.
Rail advocates note that Alto, the federal high-speed project, was already scheduled to carry its first passenger sometime after 2040, which means Ontario is withdrawing support from a train that most current cabinet ministers will experience only as a plaque.
The Toronto Island ferry, meanwhile, continues to cross 121 metres of water in roughly eight minutes, unchanged, unexpanded, and unbothered.
Officials say negotiations will continue. Both sides have agreed in principle that somebody should eventually go somewhere faster, just not yet, and not from there.