The proposed expansion of the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport was a test case for Prime Minister Mark Carney – and a fairly straightforward one, too.
Here was an infrastructure project that did not involve multiple jurisdictions, competing provincial interests, or Indigenous land claims (though in late May, the Haudenosaunee Development Institute asked to be formally consulted on the plans). The federal government didn’t even need to initiate development plans: This was Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s baby. All Ottawa needed to do, really, was stand back and let it happen.
