Saturday, March 28, 2009

The Clueless Manifesto: Why the Ottawa International Airport Needs a Curfew and More

I had the real pleasure yesterday to speak with the VP of Communications for the Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport Authority (OMCIAA) “Airport Authority”. Our conversation was about as satisfying as the feeling one would get if they turned their car on, opened the windows, and sat in their car for about an hour … all the while with the garage door shut.

First, however, a bit of context: I have now made 15 noise related complaints with the Airport Authority about aircraft noise in my community, at all hours of the day or night. This is because the Ottawa International Airport is allowed to operate without a time curfew, unlike the cities of Toronto and Montreal. The process is quite simple: I search for the number to call on the Airport Authority’s website; I call and make a complaint; and they send me a letter telling me how important the airport is to the community. To pull directly from the Airport Authority’s website, the “… OMCIAA listens to every noise inquiry and investigates to determine the cause”. Yes, that is true. However, they don’t do anything about it and this makes the process worse than useless.

My phone conversation yesterday with the Airport Authority went something like this … (Question) “what can be done about the 15 noise related complaints I have made with the Airport Authority” … (Response) “we should be so lucky to have an airport in Ottawa”. (Question) “…what about my most recent complaint?” (Response) “… that was a Transport Canada aircraft and we only deal with commercial flights”. (Question) “…do you realize that I live outside of the Airport Operations Influence Zone”. (Response) “… well that doesn’t mean you’re not going to be influenced by aircraft noise”. (Question) “…if you aren’t responsible for aircraft noise involving non-commercial aircraft, who is?” (Response) “I don’t know”. As God is my witness, that was the gist of our conversation.

Talking to the Ottawa International Airport is kind of like communicating with a kiosk. However, unlike most kiosks that one would interact with, this kiosk provides neither helpful information nor service. The Airport Authority’s kiosk has basically three scripts: 1) you have reached the Ottawa International Airport’s noise complaints number; 2) the aircraft you complained about was flying at 2300 feet; 3) you should be so lucky to have an airport. In a nutshell, this is the process and result of a recent noise complaint call. I suggest adding three other scripts: A) don’t bother calling this number because it’s a complete waste of your time; B) I am only responsible for infrastructure and cannot do anything about noise complaints other than to frustrate you further; and C) I am not responsible for noise complaints.

There is also the much talked about Airport Operations Influence Zone (AOIZ). It was designed with the following in mind …

The Ottawa International Airport has taken noise abatement one step further. In partnership with the municipal and provincial governments and other community stakeholders, we have created the AOIZ. This line is a composite of the 30 (Noise Exposure Forecast) NEF and 30 (Noise Exposure Projection) NEP noise contours, and takes into account visible features such as roads and watercourses. The zone was established to restrict noise-sensitive development such as residential housing, schools, and libraries, all of which are easily disturbed by noise. (Translation: these apply development restrictions to protect lands uses and activities from noise impacts emanating from the aircraft and airport operations and to conversely protect airport operations from potential complaints arising from the development of residential and noise sensitive uses too close to the airport).

The AOIZ is about as useful as the Airport Authority’s noise complaints process. In monetary terms, it’s worth about half a wooden nickel. It simply doesn’t work as intended. Interestingly, Transport Canada has produced guidelines to aid builders in terms of the materials/construction methods to be applied re: houses in and around airports. The problem with these guidelines is that no builder actually uses them - due to cost factors and because they’re only guidelines. It’s like an episode of Dumb and Dumber.

A relatively common invention amongst many leading governments is the One-Stop Shop. It is designed to make life easier for citizens by providing them with a One-Stop shop for information, services, etc. (e.g. Service Canada). This concept even extends to information and/or services of an inter-jurisdictional nature (for example, BizPal).

When it comes to aircraft noise imagine the same One-Stop shop but designed with completely the opposite objective in mind. Examples:

If you call the Airport Authority’s noise complaints line, presumably the place you go to call about noise complaints involving aircraft, you are basically told that … we are responsible for infrastructure, Nav Canada is responsible for routing aircraft, once in the air the pilots more or less do as they please (within guidelines), and we are a private company and not subject to the Access to Information Act.
If you call the City of Ottawa re: their noise by-law, you are told that this doesn’t apply to aircraft and “we can’t help you”.
If you call Transport Canada, formerly responsible for airports in this country, well that’s a matter for the Airport Authority.
If the matter involves small aircraft, then that could be the flight school, or someone else’s responsibility.
If it involves DND, or police, or medivac, then that’s somebody else altogether.


So, it’s not the responsibility of the Airport Authority, it’s not the responsibility of Transport Canada, it’s not the responsibility of the City, it’s not the responsibility of Nav Canada, or Defense, the OPP, or Medivac, or the flight schools … In short, no one is responsible/accountable for aircraft noise. So when it comes to the highway over our heads, it’s not all that different than the World Wide Web … it’s messy and it’s only going to get messier. However, unlike the Web and the hope of the Semantic Web, aircraft noise has no fix.

To borrow from David Weinberger, author of the Cluetrain Manifesto, air travel in Ottawa has grown up without a plan. It is so very ill equipped to deal with growing communities and concerns of climate change. It’s the Clueless Manifesto. At the end of the day, the City of Ottawa (no one else) has given blanket permission to one of the world’s largest polluters to operate in its city without restriction 24/7, 365 days a year. Planting 100,000 trees isn’t going to fix it.

I have come to realize that no one is responsible or accountable for the situation involving aircraft noise in the city and, as a result, no one will do anything about it. It's a horizontal problem being addressed in a siloed fashion. With air travel likely to increase over time, this chaos will only get worse. No community will be safe within 15km of the airport. It’s a fine mess!

1 comment:

  1. I like jet noise. I live right under a runway and it's great. I'm also totally sincere when I tell you that over the last ten years, and especially the last 20 years, Ottawa airport has gotten a lot less noisy. You're the only one who seems to care about this, why don't you take up the chemtrail cause, because you really come across as some kind of conspiracy theorist, and at least that way you'd have some company.

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