Banning leaded fuel is not an argument against regional airports. Regional airports create jobs that pay family bills. They provide taxes and important economic benefits for the municipalities that often own them. They support pilot training, facilitate emergency response, and improve transportation connectivity.

The question is whether their future growth should depend on a fuel that was removed from everyday transportation decades ago because of its health consequences.

Canadian families should no longer be asked to subsidize recreational flying and flight training by accepting risks to their kids from growing lead emissions.

Aviation gasoline remains one of the last transportation fuels in Canada that still contains lead. If Ottawa intends to direct new resources toward regional airports, these investments should be tied to supporting airports to make the transition to the cleaner and less risky aviation systems of the future - not perpetuating a dangerous health and environmental exemption from the past.