Pickering Airport

Henry’s vision for the Pickering airport goes far beyond passenger and goods transported across Canada and into the US. He views the airport as an opportunity for aerospace companies to research and develop aviation technology. Durham Region is already at the forefront of many areas of tech — robotics, hydrogen, engineering, autonomous connected electric vehicles and energy — and equipped with facilities like the ACE Climatic Wind Tunnel and Ontario Tech University’s geothermal and solar tech engineering capabilities. With this in mind, Henry believes that Durham Region is uniquely positioned to make an airport in Pickering an attractive place for the research and development of aviation tech and a vehicle for green energy technology. 

“We have an opportunity to put in place really good planning systems, to look at the environmental footprint of the land and build an airport that uses cutting-edge technology.” Henry says. “Imagine an airport where you are scrubbing ground source heating and clean air from the terminals to move through a series of large vertical greenhouses in which food is grown twelve months out of the year and then shipped from that airport into the hands of people across Canada. Imagine that same airport also being a welcome mat for the latest in aviation technology development—a place that utilizes and employs the tech talent pool in Durham Region, pushing the region’s reputation for tech development, creating jobs, and making sustainability a priority.” This is the vision for the Pickering airport. Sounds good, right?

Some don’t feel that way. Farmers currently leasing the land for agriculture understandably don’t want to lose the land they’re farming. But both Mark Brooks and Henry believe that it’s possible for the two to co-exist.

“Every airport I’ve gone to has farmland as part of it, or at least right next to it, with the exception of the large ones like Pearson,” Brooks says, “Farming and airports can go hand-in-hand and we need to move forward. We need to use the land for what it was initially intended — economic development.”

Henry feels that if traditional farming on the Pickering Lands transitioned to vertical farming, then an airport and agriculture could absolutely co-exist. “I’m excited about the future of those lands. I think there are huge opportunities for the aerospace industry, for agriculture, and for the movement of goods and people, and I think it can all be done in harmony. Airports around the world are changing how they do business and are protective of the environment.” In Henry’s eyes, the airport in Pickering would be no different.

With the go-ahead to build an airport in Pickering in limbo, what can be done in the meantime? Henry says we need to think outside of council cycles and that the dialogue with the Greater Toronto Airport Authority needs to continue, as do discussions with aerospace companies, provincial and federal levels of government and the public and private sectors. This is because the airport will take years of planning, public consultation and feedback, approved site plans and more.

“Durham Region is perfectly placed to do all this,” Henry says, “We have the talent, we have the skill, and there is demand. We can work together to build what I think could be the greatest airport — from an environmental point of view — in the entire world, right here in Durham. This is an extraordinary opportunity to be bold and reignite the economy, while we sustain the environment. It’s going to take courage to do that.”