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If you're new or missed my last email, friendly reminder to email your MP about fighting air traffic overhead!

Simply copy/paste the email of the MP of your riding, copy/paste our email template, and send! It should only take a couple minutes.

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If an MP of a community you’re in is not here, feel free to put it in the comments in this petition (in the reasons for signing area).

Oakville North/Burlington: Pam Damoff

pam.damoff@parl.gc.ca

Etobicoke North: Kirsty Duncan

kirsty.duncan@parl.gc.ca

Mississauga-Streetsville: Rechie Valdez

rechie.valdez@parl.gc.ca

Subject: Help us fight excessive airplane noise over our communities!

Hello [MP name].

I’m contacting you because I’m concerned about an operational change Pearson airport made, which negatively affected our quality of life.

On November 2022, NAV Canada implemented RNP, a new procedure to reduce noise over Oakville, Mississauga, and surrounding communities.

At the same time however, the primary arrivals were moved from the north runway (Runway 05/23) to the south runway (Runway 06L/24R), and primary departures from the south runway (Runway 06L/24R) to the north runway (Runway 05/23) during an easterly flow.

This second change was NOT part of the RNP public consultation, and it moved the bulk of arrivals/departures to new communities that got nowhere near as much noise as before. While the airport said this was temporary, we have no information when/if this will end two years later.

Noise in these areas are now higher than pre-pandemic, even though overall traffic isn’t at 2019 levels, with Oakville and Mississauga Streetsville now under a very concentrated flight path of constant arrivals.

Etobicoke North is also dealing with significantly more departures as they’re directly behind Runway 05/23, which wasn’t a primary departure runway before.

We can no longer enjoy our properties because of the significant increase in noisy aircraft over our homes. Would you be happy if a ton of aircraft were suddenly rerouted over your house?

An online petition was created by the impacted residents, and now has over 550 signatures: https://www.change.org/p/stop-low-flying-aircraft-over-our-neighbourhoods

With RNP in effect for two years, it failed to achieve its objectives to reduce noise over residents, and has made it significantly worse for most communities.

This should be taken just as seriously as other issues impacting one’s health, as many studies have shown plane noise having detrimental effects to one’s well being.

As aviation falls under the federal government, I call you to urge the GTAA/NAV Canada to reverse these changes, and/or to study new technologies/strategies that can reduce aircraft noise for these communities.

NAV Canada already received recommendations from HELIOS, and we’re calling on you to urge them to study, and implement the recommendations as quickly as possible. The helios report was done in 2017, and many ideas aren’t implemented yet.

We also ask for new rules for arrivals to be higher when it’s safely possible, as this has shown to significantly reduce noise, and find ways to make the south downwind shorter. Many flights over Oakville North/Burlington are stagnant at 3-4,000 feet for miles at a time, where these flights could safely be at 6,000 feet in certain conditions.

While I understand aircraft noise can’t be eliminated, and aircraft will still need to fly over communities, there needs to be a better way to manage noise at Toronto Pearson.

The change where Pearson swapped the arrival/departure runways shouldn’t have happened, and even if it did there should’ve been public consultation before it was done, considering how these flights were rerouted over many new communities.

Kind regards,

[your name]