Toronto Harbour Needs Your Voice. And It Can’t Wait.

Billy Bishop Airport Consultation

Every Canadian has a favourite body of water. It’s part of who we are.

But most of us live in cities. And somewhere along the way, we let our urban waterways become polluted, constrained or simply out of reach. So we leave on weekends, those of us who can, to find somewhere we can actually swim in the water.

Here’s the harder question: do we love our waterways enough to show up for them, even when the issue isn’t in our own backyard? Even when it is?

Right now, there’s a federal consultation open on the future of Billy Bishop Airport. More importantly, it’s about the future of Toronto Harbour and the connection to Lake Ontario. The consultation closes July 24, 2026. Unfortunately many people won’t participate. They’re busy. They assume someone else will weigh in.

That’s how we lose things.

In June 2026, Ontario passed legislation allowing acquisition of the city-owned airport lands, effectively breaking open the 1983 Tripartite Agreement that had governed the harbour for over forty years. That agreement placed firm limits on runway expansion and building into the lake.

Those protections are now uncertain.

What happens next, how the harbour evolves, what gets built, what gets protected, is not settled. It’s being shaped right now, through this process.

Some voices have already dismissed this consultation as a sham. That’s a mistake. Not because governments get it right but because participation only works if people actually participate. Walking away sends its own message: that the public isn’t engaged, that trade-offs don’t need to be tested, that decisions can move forward without meaningful input.

Silence is not a strategy. And to be clear, this matters even if you don’t live in Toronto

Urban waterways across Canada face the similar pressures to Toronto: competing land uses, expanding infrastructure, climate stress, unequal access. Toronto Harbour isn’t an exception. It’s a test case.

For many people, the waterfront isn’t a secondary amenity, it’s the only accessible connection to open water. Not everyone has a car, a cottage or the ability to leave the city on weekends. When decisions get made about shoreline access, habitat, noise and infrastructure, they don’t land equally.

Participation matters because it ensures those realities become part of the record.

What you can actually do, takes 8 minutes

The federal survey is anonymous. No account, no registration.

The open text fields are where it counts. Write what you actually care about, swimmable water, drinking water protection, healthy habitat, real public access. Government analysts read these responses. They look for patterns. A hundred people independently writing “swimmable water” in plain language carries more weight than clicking the nearest checkbox.

Take the survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/PFJSW2X

Want to say more? Email Transport Canada directly:

airportspolicy-politiquedesaeroports@tc.gc.ca

Subject line: Consultation – Future of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport

Deadline: July 24, 2026.

The lake cannot submit feedback. The harbour cannot write an email. Water depends on people to speak for it. When we don’t, it gets treated as empty space, something to build over, expand into, absorb the impacts of.

Most people won’t take the time to do this.

If you do, it matters.

Speak for the shoreline. Speak for the lake you love.

The water is needs your voice and participation.