Decades-long battle to bring airport to Pickering grounded by feds [Video]

A decades-long battle over whether to build an airport on land in the northern portion of Pickering, Ont. appears to have finally come to an end.

On Monday, the Trudeau government announced that some of the Pickering Lands will be transferred over to Parks Canada, putting an end to a saga that dates back to the early 1970s.

“Our government has determined that a new airport is not the best use of the federal Pickering Lands,” Transportation Minister Anita Anand said.

The federal government said that it will consult with tenants, Indigenous communities as well as area residents to decide what to do with the rest of the land.

Back in 1972, the federal government purchased 18,600 acres of land in Pickering, Uxbridge and Markham with the intention of building a new airport, much to the dismay of many area residents.

Three years later, the idea was put on hold as the …