Funding Cut For Private Airport By Toronto Authorities

Buttonville airport, which occupies about 180 acres near the Markham-Toronto border, will be closed in about five years. In its place will be a real estate development which is being described as "a town within a city."

The Canadian newspaper The National Post reports that the owners of the airport have agreed to the sale to Cadillac Fairview Corp for the mixed residential and commercial development. Mike Sifton, the head of the family which owns the airport, said the decision is "bittersweet." The family has owned the property since 1963, and he said his father, Mike Sr., "poured his blood, sweat, and tears" into the airport's operations.

But Sifton said the sale became necessary when the Greater Toronto Airport Authority abruptly cut off funding for airport operations which had been provided for the last ten years. The annual subsidy had been $1.5 million (Canadian) which kept the airport operating while a new, publicly funded airport was built nearby in Pickering. The economy moved that project to the back burner, and the GTAA said it needed to focus on nearby Pearson airport, which is also publicly owned. Despite about 170,000 aircraft operations a year, most of them GA, at privately owned Buttonville, the GTAA decided to end its funding agreement two years early, according to the paper.

The Sifton family appealed to the national government in Ottowa for assistance, but were turned down despite heavy lobbying by local leaders.

Pert of the irony is that, with Buttonville closing, it may speed the development of the airport at Pickering. Many businesses which are based at the airport need a new home or will be forced to close. Those include three flight schools, emergency services, and other aviation-related businesses. In addition, Buttonville is an important reliever airport handling corporate jet traffic that would otherwise go to Pearson International or Toronto Island airports.

FMI: www.gtaa.com