Pearson Accountability Alliance

Date submitted: May 20, 2025

Subject: Records relating to the design, approval, and administration of Pearson’s Night Flight Restriction Program, including the passenger-based night-flight budget formula.

Status: Response received following OIC order

OIC file number: 5825-03707

Date: March 24, 2026

Type: Final report and order

Finding: Transport Canada failed to comply with statutory timelines and was deemed to have refused access to records.

Key determination: The Commissioner described the delay as “irresponsible and unacceptable.”

Order: Transport Canada was required to provide a complete response within 120 business days.

Record: View full report and analysis →

Date submitted: June 4, 2025

Subject: Records concerning restricted nighttime aircraft movements at Toronto Pearson from 1990–1997; definitions, policies, guidelines, and decisions concerning the restricted nighttime hours in effect during that period; and annual total aircraft movements from 1990 through 2025.

Status: Response received — 415-page release

OIC file number: 5825-03708

Date: April 16, 2026

Type: Final report and order

Finding: Transport Canada failed to respond within the statutory period and was deemed to have refused access to records.

Key determination: The delay by Ontario Region was described by the Commissioner as “irresponsible and unacceptable.”

Order: Transport Canada was required to provide a complete response within 60 business days.

Record: View full report and analysis →

OIC final report: View April 16, 2026 final report →

Transport Canada received: September 24, 2025

Subject: Records relating to the September 4, 2025 community noise meeting involving Transport Canada, NAV CANADA, and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, including pre-meeting planning and briefing materials, attendance and meeting records, post-meeting correspondence, commitments made during the meeting, references to GTAA lease obligations and the stated mandate to “fulfill demand,” night-flight traffic information, and the preparation or circulation of meeting minutes.

Status: Response received — 120-page release

OIC status: Complaint under investigation

OIC file number: 5825-03674

Transport Canada received: December 10, 2025

Subject: Records showing how Transport Canada received, routed, acknowledged, summarized, forwarded, briefed, discussed, or responded to correspondence concerning the Greater Toronto Airports Authority and Toronto Pearson International Airport. The request included Ministerial Correspondence Unit records, copies of correspondence held in departmental systems, draft responses and briefing products, internal communications involving the Minister’s Office, Deputy Minister’s Office and relevant branches, and external communications with organizations including GTAA, NAV CANADA, Health Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and other public bodies.

Status: Response received — 590-page release

OIC status: Complaint under investigation

OIC file number: 5825-04430

Key dates: Complaint filed with the Office of the Information Commissioner on January 16, 2026; formal notice of intention to investigate issued on January 22, 2026.

Date submitted: December 10, 2025

Subject: Administrative and processing records concerning Transport Canada’s handling of related Access to Information matters.

Status: ATIP file assigned

Transport Canada received: February 24, 2026

Subject: Records relating to Runway Surface Condition (RSC) NOTAMs, Runway Condition Codes (RWYCC), and Transport Canada’s oversight, monitoring, review, and evaluation of runway surface condition reporting at Toronto Pearson International Airport during 2025.

Status: Response received

OIC status: Search / assistance issue under OIC review

OIC file number: 5825-05813

Transport Canada received: February 24, 2026

Subject: Records relating to the September 4, 2025 Humber River–Black Creek airplane-noise meeting at St. Jude’s Catholic Church, including meeting-related records, correspondence, and Transport Canada material associated with the event.

Transport Canada received: February 24, 2026

Response date: September 16, 2026

Subject: Records of communications, coordination, preparation, and information-sharing among Transport Canada, NAV CANADA, and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority concerning elected representatives, community meetings, aircraft-noise discussions, Humber River–Black Creek engagement, and the September 4, 2025 St. Jude’s meeting.

Status: Response received — 235-page release

Key findings: The records document Transport Canada’s preparation to attend the September 4 meeting as an observer; differing internal descriptions of the federal role concerning aircraft-noise health issues; and a December 2024 decision by the Assistant Deputy Minister’s Office to defer a broader response to GTAA and NAV CANADA.

Transport Canada received: February 24, 2026

Subject: Records relating to Transport Canada’s aircraft-noise policy work, health-study work around noise, Noise Chapters, and related internal analysis concerning aircraft-noise health impacts and policy.

Transport Canada received: February 24, 2026

Subject: Records relating to the uptime, outages, reliability, and operational status of Noise Monitoring Terminals (NMTs) associated with Toronto Pearson International Airport from January 1, 2010 to February 24, 2026. The request sought NMT uptime and outage logs, records documenting degraded performance, correspondence concerning NMT reliability, and Transport Canada analyses or reviews of the adequacy and reliability of the NMT network.

Status: Response received — 19-page release

OIC status: Complaint filed — search completeness under investigation

Complaint filed: April 30, 2026

Issue: The 19-page disclosure consisted primarily of internal correspondence and briefing material concerning general Pearson aircraft-noise complaints and did not meaningfully address the requested NMT uptime, outage, reliability, or performance records. The complaint asks the Office of the Information Commissioner to examine whether Transport Canada conducted a reasonable and properly scoped search for responsive records.

Transport Canada received: February 24, 2026

Subject: Records concerning Transport Canada’s internal analysis of aircraft-noise complaints and complaint trends from 2024–2026; internal discussions concerning the legitimacy or authenticity of complaints; staff resourcing and preparedness for noise-related meetings; and internal reviews, summaries, briefing materials, and communications concerning complaint patterns and community engagement at Toronto Pearson.

Status: Response received

Transport Canada received: February 26, 2026

Response received: July 13, 2026

Subject: Records concerning federal consideration, interpretation, and communications relating to environmental jurisdiction and oversight at Toronto Pearson International Airport. The request included federal–provincial jurisdiction, applicability of provincial environmental legislation, communications with Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), environmental compliance and monitoring, ministerial and senior-executive briefings, and legal or policy interpretations concerning environmental responsibilities at federally regulated airports.

Status: Response received — 204-page release

Exemptions applied: Subsection 19(1) and paragraph 20(1)(b) of the Access to Information Act.

OIC status: Formal investigation underway

OIC file number: 5826-02373

Complaint filed: July 14, 2026

Notice of investigation: July 20, 2026

Issues under investigation: The Office of the Information Commissioner is investigating allegations that Transport Canada improperly withheld information under paragraph 20(1)(b) and subsection 19(1), failed to conduct an adequate search for responsive records, and failed to disclose portions of records that could reasonably be severed from exempt information.

Complaint details: A page-by-page review identified 171 of the 204 released pages as completely withheld, including 158 pages withheld completely under paragraph 20(1)(b) alone. The complaint also challenges whether Transport Canada properly searched for ministerial correspondence, administrative handling records, and legal or policy interpretation records.

Missing-record concerns: The complaint specifically asks whether November 14 and December 9, 2025 correspondence concerning MECP’s jurisdictional position was located, whether it appears within fully withheld page ranges, and whether related registration, routing, tasking, consultation, briefing, decision, and response records were properly searched for and processed.

Date submitted: May 21, 2025

Health Canada received: June 6, 2025

Subject: Records relating to Health Canada’s consideration of aircraft noise, sleep disturbance, and public-health impacts associated with airport operations.

Status: OIC final report and order issued

OIC file number: 5825-03705

Date: June 3, 2026

Institution: Health Canada

Finding: The complaint was well founded. Health Canada failed to respond within the statutory period and was deemed to have refused access.

Records identified: Health Canada’s program branch provided 17,187 pages of potentially responsive records to its ATIP office on July 10, 2025.

Key determination: As of April 13, 2026, review of the records had not begun. The Commissioner described the delay in beginning the review as “unacceptable.”

Order: The Minister of Health must provide a complete response to the access request no later than September 6, 2027.

PDF: View Health Canada OIC final report — June 3, 2026 →

Date submitted: December 11, 2025

Response received: April 7, 2026

Subject: Records showing how Health Canada received, handled, assessed, forwarded, discussed, or acted upon correspondence concerning the health impacts of aircraft noise and air pollution associated with Toronto Pearson International Airport. The request also sought ministerial records, internal communications, interdepartmental exchanges, scientific or risk materials relied upon, and records concerning the processing of earlier Health Canada access request A-2025-000298.

Status: Response received — 3,203-page release plus 3 MP4 files

Exemption applied: Section 19 of the Access to Information Act.

OIC status: Extension complaint concluded

OIC file number: 5825-04233

Key findings: Health Canada records state that its Consumer and Clinical Radiation Protection Bureau provides expertise on the health effects of noise upon request from Transport Canada. PAA’s review of the 3,203-page disclosure did not locate a Pearson-specific Health Canada health-risk assessment applying that expertise to the community exposure evidence submitted, or a documented request from Transport Canada asking Health Canada to conduct such an assessment. The disclosure also shows that Health Canada received extensive Pearson-specific correspondence, noise-monitoring material, health-related evidence, and requests for federal intervention.

Date: March 27, 2026

Institution: Health Canada

Issue: Whether Health Canada’s 90-day extension under subsection 9(1)(a) was reasonable.

Finding: Complaint not well founded.

Key determination: Health Canada advised the OIC that approximately 11,000 pages had been identified for review, and the Commissioner concluded that the 90-day extension was justified.

Due date confirmed: April 8, 2026

PDF: View Health Canada OIC Final Report — March 27, 2026 →