City, port authority at odds over canopy structure
Work on concrete overhang, part of tunnel to island, started without city’s OK
The city is fighting with the Toronto Port Authority over an unfinished concrete canopy outside Billy Bishop Airport’s mainland terminal.
The port authority, which operates the airport on TPA-owned land on the island — with connections on city-owned land on the mainland — started construction on the overhanging outpost despite not having permission to build, the city says.
In a letter from the city’s leasing and site manager, Wayne Duong, dated April 10 and obtained by the Star, the city asks the TPA to “immediately cease all unauthorized construction activity” at the airport.
After the port authority first approached the city about the canopy, according to the letter, the agency met with city representatives in March to discuss the proposal.
At some point after the meeting, which ended with the city requesting more information, the TPA began building the canopy anyway.
“The lease clearly provides that the city’s approval is required prior to the tenant commencing any alterations,” the city’s letter reads. It noted that all construction should be halted until city gives its approval.
“The Port Authority knowingly constructed an advertising canopy on city property without permission. They were fully aware permission was required, but broke the rules anyway,” Councillor Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) said.
The port authority said it first started discussions with the city about the canopy — which it describes as a “protective covering to shield passengers from the weather and elements as they wait for shuttle buses and taxis” — more than two years ago. Spokesperson Erin Mikaluk said in an email that the TPA provided the requested details, including drawings and measurements, to the city, but when it followed up with staff, it “could not get a response.”
The project, part of the work to complete a tunnel to the island airport, is on a timeline, Mikaluk wrote. According to the TPA’s website, it’s scheduled to open in late spring.
“Admittedly, we should have waited for final approvals, but after two years of receiving no response, we believed that this relatively minor structure was of no interest or concern,” she wrote. “There has been no work on the structure since March17, and we are hopeful that the councillor will engage with us on a solution so that work can re-commence and open the tunnel later this spring.”
There may be more hurdles with the TPA’s plans, which also remain unresolved. The port authority plans to build four vertical digital screens on the canopy, which is near the passenger drop-off and pick-up area, that will feature “some advertising,” according to Mikaluk.
In a media kit posted to its website in October, the TPA outlines new advertising opportunities, including the signs, to potential advertisers.
But it’s not clear if those signs would even be allowed by city rules.
In 2007, the city entered into a 20year street-furniture contract with Astral Media that prohibits any other ads in the “public right-of-way.”