Evidence of meeting #116 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was flights.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:15 a.m.
NDP
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
This is not talked about as much now, but there is always the possibility of the government privatizing airports. We have gone from management by Transport Canada to management by port authorities.
What do you think about the idea of airports some day being privatized? Would that make the situation worse?
9:15 a.m.
As an Individual
I'm not in favour of it. Assigning the airports to the airport authorities has distanced the people from the decision-making authority. Assigning it to the private sector would make it even worse, because then you have legal documents that you're dealing with. I'm quite sure that the community would not be given the emphasis they have now, which is much less than they used to have.
9:15 a.m.
As an Individual
It's all the more reason to have a standard in place, because if it privatize, you can be sure they will do everything in their power to keep the whole sky open for themselves.
9:15 a.m.
Representative, Neighbours Against the Airplane Noise
I agree. It's all about income for them. It's not about people and health and whatever else. That doesn't play into it.
9:15 a.m.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Peter, in 2017 you were interviewed by Radio-Canada, and if I may cite you, you said, “It's certain terminology that they call 'noise sharing' and they're starting to market that as a concept”. Can you please elaborate on this terminology and what its features are, both positive and negative?
9:15 a.m.
Representative, Neighbours Against the Airplane Noise
This idea came from both the GTAA and Helios, which was a consultant that GTAA hired to study noise.
Noise sharing is a method whereby you take problem areas of the GTAA, meaning the east-west runways, and you share that noise. All of a sudden the north-south runways, which are far closer to the airport, get their share of the noise. At the end of the day, Helios, in their final report that was published on September 11, stated that noise sharing is a bad idea. It's taking a problem and making it wider and sharing it. I urge every one of the members of the committee to read that report; it's very important.
Hopefully I answered your question.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Do you know if it was used at the Pearson airport? Was this idea being tested?
9:20 a.m.
As an Individual
It certainly was. The problem is that the winds go from west to east 70% of the time, thereby shifting it around. Planes have to go into the wind. That isn't something you vote on. That's something that simply happens. That was the final decision.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Mr. Driedger, among other solutions, you suggest limiting the number of night flights to 9,600, as was the case in 1996. Do you think that limit may help radically reduce night noise?
9:20 a.m.
As an Individual
If you cut the number of flights in half, you reduce the amount of noise, so yes, it would reduce it, but you have to keep in mind that in order to meet their goal of 90 million passengers, they're going to have to bring in larger planes, and larger planes make more noise. Even if you're bringing in fewer planes, I'm not convinced that the total noise dosage would go down, and that's important. If you have fewer flights, you get less noise. Whether 9,600 is the right number, I don't know, but I just think 19,000 is not.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
9:20 a.m.
As an Individual
It's been going on for a long time. It was triggered last year when they were doing construction on the two east-west runways and they had to use the north-south runway more, which is not one of their preferred runways. That added to it.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
I was told by my constituents that they've noticed the noise getting louder and louder within the last three to five years, and they've concluded that the planes are flying a lot lower. Is that the case at Pearson?
9:20 a.m.
As an Individual
I don't think it's the case for arrivals, because they come in at a fixed slope. For departures, it's very dependent on the winds and the weather. If there are strong winds, they climb faster.
9:20 a.m.
As an Individual
It's certainly hard when you see them take off over your house. You want to help lift it, but that's an impression.
9:20 a.m.
Representative, Neighbours Against the Airplane Noise
I'll add to that very briefly. Again I refer to the Helios study, which each one of the members should read. It's a public study. They made a recommendation of different landing approaches for aircraft. Right now they do a very slight slope down, whereas Helix said there's another way. They'd be up higher and come in quicker and steeper to the runway, which would decrease the noise across that stretch.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Last Tuesday, the example of Pickering was brought up and was even commended by the Community Alliance for Air Safety. However, I must admit that my knowledge on that issue is limited.
Mr. Driedger, I think that, between 2004 and 2007, you studied the environmental repercussions of developing an airport in Pickering. Can you tell the committee about the analysis you carried out and its results?
9:20 a.m.
As an Individual
The work I did was to prepare a document called the Pickering draft plan, which outlined what the project would be. I summarized the number of technical studies and made it into a readable public document.
I also prepared a draft document of the project description, which was the document that would have been used to launch an environmental assessment, but the board of the GTAA determined that we should not proceed with that project.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Would it be possible for you to provide us with these two reports, these two documents that you have completed?
9:20 a.m.
As an Individual
The first one was never finalized and released. The second one used to be on Transport Canada's website. I personally do not have a copy of it, but I know you could get one from Transport Canada.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
I only have a couple of minutes, so I'll be as quick as I can, which is relatively fast.
Pearson is the fourth most expensive airport in the world to land at. The top three are all in Japan. Large planes pay as much as $17 a tonne to land there, small planes $145. It's a very expensive airport.
Traffic is going up very fast, as we've discussed. You talk about it increasing by exponential amounts over the next few years. My question is for all of you. When you fly, what decisions do you make to not add to the problem? What can consumers do to not pick those night flights and so forth? Do you have any thoughts on that?
