A public meeting hosted by the Toronto Port Authority on Wednesday morphed into a war of words as residents demanded more accountability from the federal agency about noise controls at the island airport.

Residents were surprised to be met by an open-house-style meeting, where summaries of the port authority's Billy Bishop Toronto Airport Noise Management Study were displayed and experts were on hand to answer questions.

And they were having none of it.

“We want a public meeting,” a group of residents demanded loudly. Port authority president and CEO Geoffrey Wilson assured them there would be another public meeting and that this was just an information session to “digest the complex information” in the study.

To bring order to the room, Ward 20 Councillor Adam Vaughan intervened and asked to organize the meeting so attendees could hear each other's questions and the responses.

The report, prepared for the port authority by Jacobs Consultancy, had been online since Feb. 6 and many of the 30 or so who showed up had already seen it.

Residents complained that the report had one glaring omission: It did not include the near doubling of takeoffs and landings announced on Christmas Eve. Those “slots” were raised from 112 to 212 without public consultation.

Residents worry that the port authority won't be able to afford to add the extra slots without potentially bumping air ambulance Medevac or the island flight school because of existing noise restrictions.

But Mr. Wilson said the helicopters are not going anywhere.

“There is no plan at the moment to remove Medevac,” he said. The greater number of slots are being taken up by quieter, more fuel-efficient planes, meaning there's no need to nix helicopters or private aircraft, such as those coming into the island flight school.

The report has failed to tackle key concerns raised by residents who are angry that they were never consulted about the study before its rollout, said Brian Iler, chairman of CommunityAIR, a local group that is critical of the federal agency.

“If they were concerned, they would have [issued the noise report] four years ago,” he said, adding that the recommendations were far too standard.

It was the first public meeting since the port authority formed the Noise Management Advisory Group, which has met twice since November of 2008.

The report recommends slight noise adjustments, particularly in the evenings and weekends. It also recommends creating certain engine runup areas surrounded by noise-control barriers.