The development of the airport lands is key to building a prosperous future for not just Pickering, but for the entire region. This opportunity gives us the choice to build a city that meets our needs and provides options to residents that wouldn’t otherwise be available.

Quality of Life

Businesses, especially high-value businesses, need some proximity to an airport to be successful in the 21st century. That business growth in turn leads to a larger tax base that:

  • Provides the city with the resources to build the kind of city that we want
  • Better allocates tax incidence among residential and industrial/commercial taxpayers
  • Provides a greater ability to maintain the services that make Pickering a great place to live

Maintaining and enhancing parks, improving roads and trails, building playgrounds, bridges, community and recreation centres and educational institutions, and protecting emergency services, will lay the foundation of a healthy City that can provide its residents with a good quality of life. 

Bringing home and work closer together

High-value industries look to invest or expand in cities with competitive elements such as proximity to transportation hubs. In return for providing access to important infrastructure like an airport, those businesses supply the interesting, well-paying jobs that allow residents to live and work close to home.

As the eastern gateway of the Toronto Region, Durham is on track to reach one million residents by 2031 and offers ready access to a diverse market of over six million people. We know we’ll have the talent. An airport in the Pickering Airport Lands can help ensure we have the jobs to keep that talent close to home.

Security through diversity
Having a diverse selection of businesses and employers means that our community does not rely on a single major employer to guarantee job security for a large proportion of residents. It also means the City isn’t reliant on a single source for a large part of its tax base. Creating the conditions that will draw many high-value industries can help protect our city from an over-reliance on any one employer or industry.