Ford backs Carney's plan for private investors at 4 major airports in Canada

Ford supports Carney's plan for private investors Toronto's Pearson airport

Prime Minister Mark Carney says he wants to open up Canada's 4 largest airports to private investors

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is fully on board with the prime minister's plan to see private investors take over operations at Canada's four largest airports, including Toronto Pearson, he said Wednesday.

Ford said not only is the idea "fabulous," but it should be expanded to include Toronto's island airport.

"I have to give credit where credit's due," he said at an unrelated press conference.

The premier has been pushing for the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport to be expanded so it can accommodate jets, continuing his push even after the federal government rejected the plan.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, however, has left the door slightly ajar, saying last month that while the results of a consultation that garnered mostly negative responses were clear, he was not nixing the expansion forever.

The island airport is an ideal project for privatization, as it is "shovel ready" and would greatly benefit the economy, Ford said Wednesday.

"Times have changed now," he said.

"It's not about the government funding everything. We have billions and billions, hundreds of billions, actually over a trillion of pension fund money ... We're encouraging all of Ontario and Canadian pension funds to invest, invest into our airports, invest into our nuclear, and invest into the (electricity) distribution."

Airport private investment makes sense now 'in different times,' Carney says

Carney announced Tuesday that under his airport pitch, the federal government would retain ownership of the land and assets.

He said the government is not looking to privatize airports but rather to change their operational structure, and it would reinvest money that's raised into regional airports

Opposition party leaders call out Ford's support

Provincial opposition party leaders are not quite so fond of Carney's plan or Ford's support to privatize airports.

Ford focused on his own pitch for Billy Bishop Airport and didn't have a word about the potential impacts on travellers or airport workers, said Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles on social media platform X.

"Just another run at one of the last public spaces every family in this city can afford. Toronto said no. He's trying again anyway," she said.

What Carney's pitch for private investment could mean for major Canadian airports

Canada's 4 largest airports to be opened up to private investment, Carney says

The province needs investments that help everyday people, rather than "line the pockets of the rich," said Ontario Greens Leader Mike Schreiner in a news release.

"Premier Ford should be looking for opportunities that will create good, generational jobs in Ontario — not looking for new ways to sell off our public infrastructure," Schreiner said.

He called on the government "to get its priorities straight," adding that privatized airports will make air travel even more expensive.