Ontario's Premier Accountability Dashboard · Queen's Park Watch
Robert Deluce
Founder of Porter Airlines and current Executive Chairman. Deluce built Porter around Billy Bishop Airport and has pushed for jet service at the airport since at least 2013, when the proposal was defeated after the federal Trudeau government rejected it in 2015. Porter currently operates De Havilland Dash 8-400 turboprops from Billy Bishop; expanded to Pearson for jet service in 2022. Members of the Deluce family donated the maximum allowable amount to Rob Ford's mayoral campaigns.
Connected Scandals
Doug Ford's government introduced Bill 110 to seize all of Little Norway Park — a children's playground and waterfront green space beside two schools and a daycare — to expand Billy Bishop Airport into a jet hub, with no plan, no environmental assessment, and no guarantee the park won't become a parking lot.
As founder and Executive Chairman of Porter Airlines, Deluce's airline is the primary commercial beneficiary of the Billy Bishop jet expansion. Porter has championed jet service at the airport since 2013. Ford's Bill 110 — which seizes Little Norway Park and city-owned airport lands to enable expansion — directly serves Porter's long-standing commercial interest in operating jets from Billy Bishop rather than from Pearson.