What an extraordinary summer for Toronto’s nature community! When the Province of Ontario announced plans to take over Billy Bishop Airport and open the runways to commercial jets, the Toronto Field Naturalists (TFN) jumped straight into action.
With 15 of Toronto’s 89 Environmentally Significant Areas (ESAs) sitting directly in the potential flight path, we knew the stakes were sky-high. We needed to rally our members, amplify our voice, and team up with fellow nature lovers across the city!
Building the Great Team 🤝✨
Great conservation victories are never won alone! During the Ontario Nature regional meeting for Lake Ontario North, we set out to find allies—and our community delivered in a big way:
- Spreading the Word: Fantastic partners like Ontario Nature and the Toronto Ornithological Society (TOS) helped sound the alarm early on.
- Our First Breakthrough: We kicked off the campaign by publishing our first article, which zeroed in on how air and noise pollution would disrupt some of the absolute best birding hotspots in the GTA. It rallied our community and got members calling their MPs and MPPs right out of the gate!
- Mapping the Impact: TFN joined forces with Ontario Nature to commission a state-of-the-art GIS map, giving everyone a clear visual representation of how jet noise pollution would impact our cherished lakeshore habitats.
- Joining Forces: We teamed up with NoJetsTO (who partnered with Environmental Defence) to align our strategy, ensuring environmental and wildlife protection were at the absolute center of the campaign!
Going Viral for Nature 📸📸
To show people exactly what we were fighting for, we called on TFN’s incredibly talented community of photographers—and you blew us away with your stunning island wildlife submissions!
Our second feature article paired these gorgeous bird photos with our new GIS noise impact map. The result? A massive hit! The post caught fire on Facebook, racking up an astonishing 64,400+ views and inspiring thousands of Torontonians to reach out to their MPs and MPPs.
VICTORY! The Feds Ground the Jets ✈️🛑
All that passion, advocacy, and community action paid off in the best possible way.
On July 24, citing overwhelming public feedback, the Federal Government officially turned down the provincial expansion plan! That means NO jets on Toronto’s waterfront—stopping a proposed five-fold increase in air traffic that would have severely damaged our local air, water, quiet green spaces, and bird habitats.
Over 87,000 people made their voices heard in Transport Canada’s public survey, with an overwhelming 87% majority voting NO to jets.
Celebrating Together! 🥳🎈
To top off this historic environmental win, thousands of happy Torontonians—including a huge turnout of smiling TFN members—gathered at Harbour Square Park on July 26 for a triumphant victory rally and march.
A heartfelt THANK YOU to every single member, photographer, partner, and neighbour who signed a petition, shared a post, or called an elected official—with a special shout-out to our hardworking digital team whose dedication behind the scenes brought this campaign to life and helped our message reach tens of thousands!
Please take a moment to thank your local MP, Prime Minister Mark Carney, and Minister Steven MacKinnon for stepping in and protecting our wildlife and our great waterfront. Together, we ensured Toronto Island remains a peaceful refuge for wildlife and people for generations to come! 🌿🐤💚
-Pete Smith