Today's tonic: "How the numbers undermine Doug Ford’s flight of fancy on Billy Bishop and jets"

Before everyone jumps on Doug Ford's bandwagon (like doing that got us anywhere good in the past!?) about bringing "jets" to the Toronto Island airport, give this piece by the Toronto Star's Matt Elliott a read: 

"The report lists around a billion dollars worth of changes that would need to be made at the airport to get jets flying, including $50 million to somehow add 1,000 parking spaces. (“This is probably quite conservative,” the report warns.)

The final assessment of the report is blunt. Billy Bishop, the report says, “is not physically capable of serving as a Pearson on the lake. It cannot and need not become a full-service airport.”

Whatever you think of the idea of expanding the airport, it seems reasonable to demand that proponents provide evidence that they have a plan to address these business and infrastructure issues. Show us projections. Show us a business case. Show us any indication that the rationale for this change goes beyond “jets are cool.” There’s a hell of a lot on the preflight checklist before this flight of fancy gets cleared for takeoff."