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Pickering Airport finally gets the green light

June 11, 2013 – The federal government says it is moving ahead with long-delayed plans for an airport in Pickering.


June 11, 2013  By The Toronto Star

June 11, 2013 – The federal government says it is moving ahead with long-delayed plans for an airport in Pickering.

“For residents of Durham Region and the GTA, the Harper government is ending decades of uncertainty about the future of the Pickering Lands,” said Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in a news release Tuesday.

“There will be land for an airport, there will be urban and industrial development and there will be considerable green space on these lands.”
Flaherty said a park on the federally-owned lands would be more than 13 times the size of Stanley Park in Vancouver.

At Queen’s Park, provincial Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Glen Murray said the Ontario government was blindsided by Flaherty’s announcement.
“We’ve had no prior discussion, no negotiation with our Transportation or the Infrastructure Ministry,” he told the Star on Tuesday.

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Murray said he had just finished thanking Flaherty publicly at an event to promote the Rouge River national park when the airport bombshell landed.

“They announced they’re proceeding with the Pickering airport in some fashion without great clarity, without any heads-up, without any kind of consultation with us, which makes it hard to work together,” he said, adding Ottawa is “blindsiding” the province.
Read more on this story.

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