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 Tuffs
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 of 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
Download Letter (4pg pdf)
