I think Porter is a great airline that provides great service and as I have already stated in this thread I believe they should be allowed to proceed with the runway extension and use of the CSeries. I know people who work there who like their job but have told me that their pay is less than their Air Canada. The whole point is that the value of Porter is being totally overstated.
New jobs are important regardless of what they are are paid, new jobs that replace others are not as important unless they pay more. Walmart also states numbers talking about all the jobs that a new downtown Walmart will create. No doubt Walmart will employ a number of people and it will be successful. Some jobs might be new, mom and pop hardware stores don't have greeters perhaps, but the current economy through a looking glass focused on Walmart doesn't matter as compared to the change of Toronto's economy over time. Despite the economic figures that Walmart publishes what matters is the reality outside the new Walmart economy. To take it to the extreme imagine Walmart being the only company, its economic value would be 100% of the economy and would obviously have some impressive numbers behind it and if it shut down all the jobs would have been lost (if it were allowed to happen). Walmart would rightly claim it is a major contributor to Toronto's economy and that would be true, but the real question is did their being there significantly adjust the value of Toronto's economy upwards or downwards as a total. Now I believe Walmart harms the local economy more than it helps and I do not believe that about Porter, but I am not going to buy into any idea that Porter is propping up our economy in any measurable way. I would expect Porter's impact to be marginally positive on the whole, more so because of the Q400s, but statements about how fortunate Toronto is to be in this enviable position are over inflated. If Air Canada goes on strike it has a significant effect on the ability for Canadians to travel and the government steps in. If FedEx and UPS were to shut down I would expect some form of intervention. When the auto sector was about to die completely in North America the governments stepped in. If Porter goes on strike people will be accommodated fairly quickly by alternate means and no government will blink an eye. People will be upset, just as they would if Apple got out of the phone business, and then go to the competitor. There will be no mass exodus from the city.