Porter Airlines CEO Robert Deluce is pushing full-speed ahead to win approval for island airport expansion plans despite a series of bumps in his path.

“We believe there is more than sufficient information for council to conditionally approve our proposal,” said Deluce during a Tuesday speech at the Economic Club of Canada. The plan is subject to certification of Bombardier’s new CSeries aircraft and Transport Canada’s approval of a runway extension.

“There are natural checks and balances built into the process going forward, such that if these conditions are not satisfied, then Porter would not be able to proceed.”

Deluce has been lobbying for swift approval of the airline’s expansion plan to fly the CS100 jets from the airport, requiring the lifting of a jet ban, and runway extension of as much as 200 metres at each end.

He had been expected to speak to the business audience just days before city council was to vote on the proposal, but executive committee decided last week to defer a decision until the new year.

City staff is recommending a delay on a decision until March 2015, saying key information is not yet available, including whether the new plane will be certified as well as noise data.

Waterfront Toronto’s board has also expressed caution, raising concerns about how expansion could fit in with revitalization efforts, and the Toronto Board of Health voted unanimously Monday to reject the expansion proposal.

Deluce said the Toronto Port Authority and the federal government are “engaged in fact-finding and productive dialogue.”

Last Friday, the port authority said it was prepared to join city officials in its review of the Porter proposal, a switch from a Nov. 28 statement that said city council needs to decide if the proposal merits approval.

The port authority, which paid $1.2 million in studies to date, has insisted it is neutral on the Porter plan.

During his speech, Deluce also took a shot at opponents of Porter’s expansion plans, namely the citizens group NoJetsTO and Community Air, saying they have waged “a campaign of mistruths” in their fight against the downtown airport.

“There are those who do not wish this proposal to proceed,” he said. “They won’t be satisfied until the airport is eliminated.”

NoJetsTO has drawn support from two former Toronto mayors who have urged residents to organize against Porter’s proposal.

David Miller and David Crombie said expansion plans would threaten both the environment and people in the neighbourhood, and goes against the principle that Toronto’s waterfront was always meant to be used for multiple purposes.

The pair was speaking at a panel discussion held Monday night by the anti-expansion group NoJetsTO.

Miller, who was mayor from 2003 to 2010 and is now president and CEO of World Wildlife Fund Canada, spoke ahead of the discussion, telling a packed auditorium at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education that extending the runway would put the area’s environmental and economic future at risk.

“The Toronto Island is a gem,” he said. “We’re lucky to have incredible green space. We need more, not less.”

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“Don’t let them tell you, you can’t stop (the plan),” Miller told the crowd.

Crombie, who served as chief magistrate from 1972 to 1978, encouraged audience members to bring up the island airport issue with their councillors right up to the October 2014 municipal election, saying it would still be a “live issue” by then.

He said he wanted to drive two points home, one being that “a key principle is that no one use dominate at the waterfront,” saying the area is more than just an airport.

Crombie’s second point was to remind people that Porter Airlines is not the enemy, but rather the drive to expand the runway for whatever reason, warning that once that happens, there may be no way of stopping it from happening again later.

Deluce told reporters Tuesday that he wasn’t surprised by Miller’s comments, given he had warned of dire consequences during the 2003 election campaign. “He was wrong then, and he’s wrong now,” Deluce said.

While Crombie emphasized balance on the waterfront, ensuring that no single use dominates, Deluce believes that’s still possible with jets. “We have been able to achieve a certain balance today,” he said. “It’s not something that’s insurmountable.”

Residents appear evenly split on the Porter plan. A Forum Research poll of 898 Toronto voters showed 39 per cent disapprove of allowing jets at the island airport, up from 36 per cent in September and 35 per cent in July.

An estimated 43 per cent approve of jets, down from 49 per cent in September and 51 per cent in July.

When asked whether respondents approved of extending the runway, 44 per cent approved, 43 per cent disapproved, while 13 per cent didn’t know.

The margin of error for the interactive telephone poll, conducted Monday, is considered accurate plus or minus 3 per cent, 19 times out of 20.