Press release

April 29, 2021 

 

The Honourable Christine Elliott, MPP  

Minister of Health 

College Park 5th Floor,  

777 Bay St, Toronto, ON  

M7A 2J3 

 

Dr.Lawrence Loh 

Medical Officer of Health

Region of Peel

7120 Hurontario St, Mississauga, ON 

L5W 1N4 

 

Dear Minister Elliott and Dr. Loh: 

Thank you for the efforts of the Ontario Government and the Region of Peel in managing through the challenges of COVID-19. Since day one of the pandemic, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (the “GTAA”) and our airport, airline, union, and government agency partners have put the health and well-being of our respective workforces and passengers first. Our shared goal has always been to keep the airport functioning for the people and for the economy of Ontario: keeping Ontario’s supply chain strong, allowing necessary medicine, medical equipment, food and vaccines to get to where they’re needed most. 

Recently, the GTAA has facilitated the establishment of a Peel Region Mass Vaccination Centre at the GTAA-owned International Centre and worked with the province to vaccinate Temporary Foreign Workers as they arrive at Toronto Pearson. 

Toronto Pearson is surrounded by hotspot postal codes identified by the province. And, while we appreciate that frontline transportation workers have been classified as part of the province’s Phase 2 vaccination rollout plans in future months, Toronto Pearson’s postal code (L5P) should be identified as a hotspot postal code now, and vaccine eligibility criteria should be updated to include workers in hotspot postal codes; meaning, airport and airline employees would be eligible for the same vaccinations as their Peel Region and City of Toronto neighbours in hotspot postal codes.  

Of course, these are the frontline airport and airline workers that provide passenger-facing customer service, operate airport shuttles to quarantine hotels, handle baggage and provide security services at the COVID-19 testing facilities that are currently operational at Toronto Pearson.   

With your help and in the interest of public health, we can include Toronto Pearson’s postal code (L5P) as a hotspot postal code to allow airport and airline employees the option to be vaccinated in line with Peel Region’s hotspot areas around the airport.

This will also help to ensure Toronto Pearson continues to be a world class provincial and national economic asset: an airport that welcomed over 50 million passengers in 2019, facilitated an economic impact of $42 billion, and employed nearly 50,000 people at the airport proper and 300,000 workers in the Airport Employment Zone, the second largest employment zone in the country.

Thank you for your time and careful consideration in developing Ontario’s vaccination distribution and immunization plans. We will follow up with your staff in the coming days to continue this discussion.

Yours very sincerely,

 

Deborah Flint

President and CEO

Greater Toronto Airports Authority   

 

Steven Tufts 

Toronto Airport Workers Council

 

Arielle Meloul-Wechsler

Executive VP, CHRO and Public Affairs

Air Canada

 

Edward Sims

CEO

WestJet

 

Mark Williams

President

Sunwing Airlines

 

Jean-Francois Lemay 

President 

Air Transat

 

Antonio Alvarez

CEO 

GTA dnata

 

Tony Colliss

President and Managing Director

Gate Gourmet Canada

 

Vicki Benoit

Vice President – Aviation Services

GardaWorld

 

Laura E. FitzRandolph

CHRO and EVP

HMSHost Corporation

 

Angus Wilson

Director of Aviation Services

ASP Incorporated

 

George Kehagias CHRL, CRM

Director, Human Resources & Corporate Administration 

Menzies Aviation (Canada) Ltd.

 

I Burak Aydemir

Chair

The Toronto Airline Operators Committee

 

Charles Roberge

Chief Executive Officer 

Swissport Canada Inc.

 

Cc: 

Minister Sylvia Jones

Minister Caroline Mulroney

Minister Vic Fedeli

Minister Lisa MacLeod 

MPP Deepak Anand

Mayor Bonnie Crombie

Mayor Patrick Brown

Peel Regional Chair Nando Iannicca

Mayor John Tory

Councillor Carolyn Parrish