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