1. Did Mr. Robert Deluce met privately with Mr. Ford on Feb. 12 and again on March 19 with officials in the mayor’s office to discuss the company’s plan to buy jets capable of long-haul flights and extend the island airport’s runway? (Globe & Mail, Friday April 12th, 2013).
2. Did these meetings included in the city’s lobbyist registry? Were there any other councillors aware of this plan? If not, what kind of secret agreements reached between Mr. Robert Deluce & Mr. Ford? Is this legal?
He apparently called Stintz too and tipped her about new destinations. But didn't say anything about jets or the runway expansion. In any event, I fail to see what if any impact it will have if the mayor did or did not know that they were going to propose an expansion.
Well you have a lot of councillors complaining that they didn't know anything. And they felt they should have known. So if anything, I guess Porter can be accused of incompetent lobbying.
As for the mayor knowing, I would expect any major corporation would at least tip the mayor of the city off as a courtesy before dropping a bombshell.
3. Is is just a coincidence that in 2012 TPA started to landfill "EXACTLY" where Porter wants to extend the runway? Did Mr. Ken Lundy, director of infrastructure planning for the port authority said at that time "“The Toronto Port Authority has absolutely no intention of expanding the runway� (The Star, Thursday June 14, 2012)
First, that fill has to go somewhere. Second, whether they wanted to extend the runway or not is irrelevant. They cannot extend the runway without approval from the other parties of the agreement. Three, Porter signed the LOI for the aircraft in late-December. I seriously doubt the TPA could have even seriously contemplated needing a runway extension till that point, if it was a vague idea floating around. And certainly not in June, when Porter probably no idea that they wanted to pursue the expansion.
4. Who paid for that landfill?
Ummm. The TPA. It's part of the tunnel project.
5. How TPA managed to publish a complete webpage with lots of information and even with a Q&A.s section regarding "Tripartite Agreement and Other Issues" within 24 hours after Porter's announcement? Was that prepared before Porter's announcement? Was TPA aware of Porter's plan before anybody else?
Typical government agency. I would have managed it within an hour. Nothing in there is extremely sophisticated to anybody that knows the subject matter. And yes, one would think that Porter would have told their airport authority at least a few weeks before if they were going to push for an extension. Hence my surprise that it took 24 hours and not 1 hr.
6. Why TPA needed to conduct a economical study regarding Bishop Airport in 2012? Who paid for it? Why it is on the main page of the TPA web page now together with all other supportive information for Porter's plan? Doesn't TPA should be more objective? (By the way, I don't know if you read the complete report but I find it as an insult to intelligence of an average Canadian)
Yes. You're clearly better than the average Canadian.
One would expect any authority of a major piece of infrastructure, be they public or private to undertake such studies and to do so with revenues they are earning. If they TPA can't tell you what impact they are having, there's no point to them existing.
7. Does all above means Mr. Deluce already secured a secret deal with TPA and Mr. Ford ahead of time so he could make an agreement with Bombardier for his new toys? Isn't is little bit arrogant? Do you think Mr Deluce may say in private to his executives: "Who cares public, I already have a nice cozy relationship with TPA who spends public money to support me and Ford is my best buddy! Release the hounds, yippie kay yay....)
You're off your rocker. Any secret deal would be pointless. Ford isn't enough to push anything through. Changes to the Tripartite agreement require the feds and City Council to concur with the TPA. Ford could be Deluce's mistress and it still wouldn't really help him much. He's gotta have 22 Councillors on side in addition to the feds (which in this case they are).
And the fact that Porter only signed a Letter of Intent reserving production slots, not a firm order, shows that even they aren't sure if it will go through or not. Hardly what anybody could call arrogance.
8. Didn't Mr. Deluce said it was “A dirty cheap trick" when David Miller said in 2003 that a bridge to the island airport would inevitably lead to jets flying in and out?
We also didn't have jets in 2003 that could operate with 85.7 decibels of noise.
Arguing against these "jets" is like saying you oppose laser printers today because you thought typewriters were noisy 30 years ago. The CSeries is literally set to be the quietest commercial aircraft of its size, ever produced. It'll be just as noisy as the Q400s operating from YTZ today. So please stop the fact-less fearmongering over "jets".
Expansion of airport may be a good thing, I don't know.
Sounds to me like you've already made your mind up.
We can decide only after some "real" feasibility studies done by professionals.
Nothing will satisfy conspiracy theorists. Bombardier is putting out these numbers in accordance with regulations of Transport Canada, the FAA and the JAA. Yet, people like you will question whether it's "real".
Currently what is going on is a dirty sick political game at the expense of all Torontonians and I'm totally against it.
Such an open mind. A "fair and balanced" opinion worthy of Fox News.