The Prime Minister announced plans this week to attract private investment into operations at Canada's four largest airports, with proceeds earmarked to support transportation infrastructure elsewhere, beginning with regional airports.

As Ottawa considers investing more in regional airports, Canadians should know that many still rely heavily on small piston-engine aircraft that burn leaded aviation gasoline. Canada removed lead from automotive fuel in 1990 because of the well-documented health risks associated with lead exposure, especially for children. Yet aviation gasoline remains one of the last transportation fuels in Canada that still contains lead.

Canadian families already shoulder enough financial pressures without also being asked to subsidize recreational flying and flight training by accepting the health risks associated with a transportation fuel that was removed from cars and buses decades ago. If Ottawa plans to invest in the growth of regional airports, it should also commit to eliminating leaded aviation fuel by 2030, matching the timeline adopted by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. There is no reason to continue exposing children to poisonous lead emissions near the yards, playgrounds and sports fields where they live and play.

The need for action is becoming more urgent because activity at many regional airports is increasing. Consider Pitt Meadows Airport in Metro Vancouver, where I live. According to Statistics Canada data, annual aircraft movements surpassed 208,000 in 2025, about twice the level recorded a decade earlier. In practical terms, that growth means an additional aircraft movement every few minutes throughout the day, increasing the volume of lead emissions released into surrounding neighbourhoods.

Pitt Meadows recorded 17,906 takeoffs and landings in June 2026 alone (the most recent data available). That is comparable to the monthly flight activity at Calgary and Montréal's international airports and greater than the totals recorded in Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg and Halifax. The difference is those airports are dominated by commercial jets that do not operate on leaded fuel, while much of Pitt Meadows' activity involves small piston-engine aircraft that continue to burn leaded avgas.

Within roughly eight kilometres of Pitt Meadows Airport, thousands of children attend eight different schools. There are also numerous child-care facilities, parks, playgrounds, sports fields and recreation spaces used daily by families.

Pitt Meadows is not unique. Statistics Canada records flight activity at more than 70 regional airports across the country, many of them centres for recreational flying and flight training that rely heavily on small piston-engine aircraft.

The health concerns are not theoretical.

Research conducted around Reid-Hillview Airport in California found that children living closest to the airport had significantly higher blood lead levels, particularly during periods of heavier piston-aircraft activity and in areas downwind of aviation operations.

Thereafter, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an “Endangerment Finding” in 2023, formally concluding that lead emissions from piston-engine aircraft threaten public health. Under the U.S. Clean Air Act, that finding triggered legal obligations for federal regulators to develop standards to phase out leaded aviation fuel by the end of the decade.

By contrast, Transport Canada has not clarified whether Canada plans to eliminate leaded aviation gasoline on a similar timeline. Amid our current era of "elbows up" pride, this is not an issue on which we should be falling behind our American neighbours.

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.

Alternatives clearly exist. The American decision to phase out leaded aviation fuel demonstrates that regulators, airports, aircraft operators and fuel suppliers judge the transition is achievable. Electric flight-training technologies are also emerging in Canada, led by companies like Sealand Flight in Campbell River, B.C.

If Ottawa intends to direct new resources toward regional airports, it should ensure those investments support the aviation system of the future rather than perpetuate a dangerous environmental exemption from the past.

Canadians should not be subsidizing recreational flying and flight training with their children's health. We removed lead from the fuel used by the cars, trucks and buses that transport our children every day. As Canada invests in the next generation of regional aviation infrastructure, let’s ask the federal Transport Minister to set a clear timeline to remove lead from the skies above them as well.