A plan to move Toronto’s Lancaster bomber from two storage facilities near Toronto Pearson Airport to the British Columbia Aviation Museum has been put on hold until at least July.

On April 13, Toronto’s Economic Development Committee voted to give city staff time to find a way to fund the restoration of the historic Second World War-era aircraft in Toronto before going ahead with the plan to donate the plane to the B.C. museum for full restoration.

The committee voted for the deferral after hearing emotional pleas from former pilots, engineers and historians, to keep the Lancaster FM104 at home.

“You must in the long run look at this as the history and heritage of the city,” said Paul Federico, president of the Toronto Historical Association. “This is an emotional issue — this is not a dollars and cents issue.”

Lynn Berry, a member of the Toronto-based Save the Lancaster FM104 group, begged the committee to consider a proposal by the group that would see an aviation museum constructed on Toronto’s waterfront, and the Lancaster FM104 displayed there.

“Think of the attention an aviation museum would bring to the city,” said Berry. “People would marvel at it. It could be displayed indoors and it could be a destination for school trips.”

She said the group has been assured that it would be able to access federal infrastructure funding for the museum that would cover 40 per cent of its cost.

The Lancaster FM104 was donated to Toronto by the Royal Canadian Air Force Association, as a war memorial in 1964. In 1965, it was mounted on a plinth in Coronation Park. But the mounting and weather conditions caused the aircraft to corrode, and when the city needed the space to build a shaft for the Western Beaches Storage Tunnel, in 1997 Toronto council voted to transfer that and other artifacts to various museums.

The FM104 was loaned to the newly-established Toronto Aerospace Museum, and the aircraft was dismantled and moved to the museum’s premises at Downsview Park.

The restoration proceeded but was not completed, as the Canadian Aerospace Museum fell behind on its rent and was evicted from Downsview Park. The city reclaimed the aircraft in 2012, and arranged for it to be stored first near Pearson Airport and then in a facility in Stayner, Ont.

The committee also heard from John Lewis, president of the British Columbia Aerospace Museum. He said the museum has sufficient funds to move the aircraft from Stayner, and the group does have experience in restoring aircraft.

“We realize that restoring a Lancaster is a step up for us,” he said. But he said the museum would be partnering with Victoria Air Maintenance, a professional restoration company.

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“We are fully confident we can restore (the Lancaster) ultimately to flying condition,” he said.

The committee voted to hold off on a decision until city staff can determine whether the aircraft can be restored in Toronto. The matter will come back to committee in July.