A Pickering airport doesn’t make sense
Re It’s time to get started on the Pickering airport, Wilkes, Oct. 12
To read about another self-interest group resurrecting the notion that a Pickering airport is necessary can make your head explode. What David Wilkes and other supporters fail to acknowledge is that even back in 1971 and proven today, projected passenger demand nowhere near requires building a new airport.
They conveniently forget to admit that even if the Pickering airport was built, it would not initially be for passengers, but cargo.
Otherwise known as Amazon. Fast forward to 2019, communities and the Rouge National Park surround the airport site. It is inane to tout plunking an airport in the middle of housing developments and adjacent to a national park. What a marketing strategy for new home buyers. “Hey folks, you can sit in your backyard and read the tail markings on the Boeing 747 as it comes in for a landing over your house.”
Reality check: The world is in survival mode. People will not be heralding the convenience of an airport so they can scoop a cheap flight to Punta Cana. They will demand basic rights like clean water, clean air, a roof over their heads and food.
We are sitting on a gold mine, thousands of acres of farmland and the real opportunity to create high paying jobs and tax revenue through the development of a multibillion dollar, biodiverse agricultural industry with new innovation in food production for the future, as our climate and environment erodes.
We all need to finally stop giving credence to an airport in Pickering, admit that it was a big, bad, expensive mess and give it its proper burial. Bev Moroz, Whitevale