Synopsis (for detailed timeline, use the buttons below)
Pre-1972: The story of the land itself, the Indigenous peoples who foraged, settled, and farmed here for millennia, and the European settlers who followed.
1972-1975: The unexpected airport announcement; the land expropriation; the effort of People or Planes that ultimately forced Ottawa to shelve (but not cancel) the airport project.
1976-2004: The two-decade hiatus that followed; the rise of V.O.C.A.L. when the airport threat resurfaced.
2005-2008: The Pickering Airport Draft Plan by the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA); the birth of Land Over Landings.
2009-2012: The southern Ontario aviation needs study for Transport Canada, done by the GTAA.
2013-2017: The second Pickering Airport announcement; the transfers of some of the expropriated land to Parks Canada to create (then expand) Rouge National Urban Park (RNUP).
2018-2019: A Future for the Lands, the agricultural economics study of the Federal Lands, commissioned by Land Over Landings; our North Pickering Farms vision; the City of Pickering’s aerotropolis campaign.
2020-2021: How the airport narrative started changing, affected by climate breakdown, the non-conclusions of Transport Canada’s latest aviation needs study (this time by KPMG), the impacts of COVID-19, and a Pickering Council motion.
2022-2023: Federal concerns about urban development next to RNUP amid unclear need for an airport; Pickering rejects being a willing host for an airport while the Region still plans for one.
2024: The conflicting mandates of an airport and adjacent national park; launch of the fight to save Brougham Hall; new maps tell the Lands’ story; growing advocacy for farmland protection; collaboration on A Shared Vision of the Lands within RNUP.
2025-: The federal government’s stunning announcement, on January 27, 2025, of the airport’s cancellation after 53 years! The fight to protect all the prime farmland of the Federal Lands continues. Public consultations are held in March and April, 2026. Transport Canada begins distilling “what we heard”; the report will be posted online, as future-use options are developed for Cabinet to consider. We continue to engage with federal ministers, MPs, and senators re the importance of saving all of this prime farmland.