The "horror" of urban noise

Fixing Toronto – Part Two

With the news that multiple parties are interested in bring additional scheduled commercial service to Toronto’s City Centre Airport, one can’t lose sight of the fact that this will present yet another opportunity to ask the age-old question: why isn’t Toronto harbour airport a park?

In a fit of public service weakness, I agreed to get involved with the Toronto Port Authority just over two years ago. As an entity, the TPA has an important role in Toronto’s Waterfront: managing the Toronto City Centre Airport (HQ for Porter Airlines); cleaning up the harbour and the mouth of the Don River of the thousands of tons of debris that find their way into area bodies of water each year; safety and security in the Port area; working with industry to ensure that their commercial operations get the support they need; managing the incoming cargo; operating the Outer Harbour Marina; etc.

The Port of Toronto isn’t a park, but a mixed use area that balances the needs of the commercial sector with the world of pleasure boaters and nature seekers. The Port is the place where Toronto’s road salt is delivered each winter, for example. The cement and aggregates that are used to build condos and office towers are offloaded at the Waterfront. In essence, the commercial section of the Port literally keeps important parts of Toronto running. Just as it does in New York, Montreal, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Boston, and other major urban centres around North America.

As an entity, the TPA is an interesting structure. Organized under the Canada Marine Act, its 9 member board reflects appointments from all levels of government: federal, provincial and municipal. It doesn’t tax residents, so unlike most public bodies it must be self-sufficient financially. It has a single shareholder, being the federal government, and far from costing taxpayers a penny…the TPA pays the Feds a “royalty” each year (more than $600k last year). It publishes audited financial statements annually, just like a public company; and now released interim statements each 6 months. It employs many dedicated and hard-working people, both union and non, side-by-side; just as many private companies do.

In a nutshell, it is many things to many people. Unfortunately, it is also the punching bag for a few dozen people by virtue of the fact that there is still an airport operating out of Toronto’s Island – coming on 70 years now. Simply put, if you want to close the Toronto City Centre Airport and put Porter Airlines out of business, you are also likely going to be unhappy with the TPA as the administrator of the TCCA, and anyone associated with it.

With the potential for additional carriers at the TCCA, the question of how much noise these aircraft make will undoubtedly come to the fore. Although Porter’s Q400 makes less noise than a ferry whistle at Ward’s Island or a motorcycle on Queen’s Quay West (according to an independent noise study conducted earlier this year by Jacobs), complaints continue to come in from time to time about their mere existence, as well as the Province’s Air Ambulance Medivac helicopters.

The Province of Ontario’s Medivac helicopter is a riddle to me. The orange-painted rotary aircraft has been based at the TCCA for a few years now, and given its proximity to Toronto’s key downtown hospitals, that comes as no surprise. More than 100 years ago, the slums of Toronto were in the downtown core, and a historian would tell you it likely made sense at the time to build the hospitals where the sick people were.

Today, sick Ontario residents come from far and wide to use the medical services of Toronto. A gunshot wound patient might go to Sunnybrook, while a child with severe meningitis is whisked away to the Hospital for Sick Children. When the Medivac has dropped off its precious cargo on the roof of a hospital, it returns to the TCCA. Sometimes at 2:30 in the morning.

At the TPA AGM last year, one member of the audience was very cross that the Medivac woke her up from time to time, and she wanted to know why an empty helicopter was allowed to land after curfew. I pointed out that the helicopter often flies over our house, too, but its the Provincial government who decides where the helicopters should be based and the TCCA has no curfew when emergency aircraft are involved.

Given the proximity of the airport to the hospitals one could understand why they use the TCCA as their hub. This citizen firmly suggested that the Medivac is “no longer dealing with an emergency” when it is returning to base. Tell that to the pilots who just flew in from Thunder Bay via Sick Kids.

What are the Medivac pilots doing? Sightseeing?

In August, for example, the Medivac helicopters flew over our house three times in a short timespan. It is natural to look up, particularly if you have little kids who are interested in all things mechanical. Here I’m thinking – “thank God our child isn’t on that flight”, and hoping it’ll turn out well for the patient on board. For some, the thought is different: why are you disturbing my sleep? Amazingly, 15% of the TPA’s noise complaints some months involve Medivac flights.

When the #6 Aerial truck rolls at 4 a.m., I can tell you that its sirens are loud, and the horn equally so. If it runs westbound, it’ll wake us up each and every time. Should I call my city councillor and complain about the Toronto Fire Service if the call turns out not to be an emergency? Who knew that was appropriate?

Living in a city is much different than living in a rural area, and I’ve lived in both. Toronto, as Canada’s most populated urban area, is no stranger to ambient urban noise. And, depending upon where you live, the reality of the type of urban noise that you experience will be different.

The residents on Balmoral Avenue live within a stone’s throw of a very busy TFS Aerial Ladder truck. In Yorkville, condo residents will hear the TFS Pumper Truck make more than 2,400 runs each year. On Chaplin, a Toronto Ambulance depot is adjacent to a dense residential area. The East Annex Heritage District shares a few precious blocks with many of Toronto’s busiest restaurants at Avenue Road & Davenport. In the most of Etobicoke, planes using Pearson Airport are omnipresent. On the western end of the downtown waterfront, residents there live in proximity to the TCCA. And in certain areas of Scarborough, the Canadian National rail line runs through their backyard, literally, at all hours of the day and night. Carrying all sorts of hazardous cargo.

There’s no question that cities generate noise. So do airports, but those who want to close the TCCA and move Porter Airlines to Pearson are merely trying to “redeploy” their urban noise to Etobicoke, Mississauga and Brampton. Life’s not that simple. Over the past three years, the success of the TCCA has meant that Porter Airlines has acquired $500 million of Q400 aircraft. Aircraft built in Downsview by 3,500 of our GTA neighbours. Porter itself will soon employ 1,000 staff — a true job creator during a tough recession.

As much as we’d all like to live in an idyllic setting, major urban centres don’t fit that bill. Efficient transportation infrastructure should be heralded, not protested.

That’s what makes a city like ours work. We need to invest in successes, leverage what works, and not selfishly ship “our” noise to other neighbourhoods.

With the announcement that the Pam Am Games are on their way in 2015, Toronto needs every transportation asset it can marshal.

MRM
(disclosure – this blog, as always, reflects a personal opinion and in no way represents the views of the TPA, its Board/Staff or the federal government)