Premier Alison Redford鈥檚 meeting with federal Transport Minister Lisa Raitt has been postponed until an airport security review is completed.
Redford was to meet with the minister in early March to discuss both the increase in the number of airports with Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) status and to specifically make a case for the Edson airport to receive such status. (Airports with CATSA designation are able to do security scans and, in turn, are able to offer commercial flights.)
According to Peter Waterworth, chief administrative officer for the municipality, Raitt recently initiated a review of how airport security is managed and has said she will not take any meetings on the issue until the review is completed.
Tourism Jasper, along with the municipalities of Jasper, Hinton, Edson and Yellowhead County, has been working to bring commercial flights to Edson since 2012. At the Feb. 4 meeting of council, Mary Darling, the CEO of Tourism Jasper, told council that the premier鈥檚 support鈥攚hich was expressed late last year鈥攊s an exciting window of opportunity that could make this initiative a reality.
鈥淭he window is open,鈥� said Darling. 鈥淲e have full support from Premier Redford and her team. We have support from the minister of tourism, the minister of transportation and the minister of infrastructure.
鈥淭hey have all committed to putting their deputy ministers on a task force and working group to represent us to the federal government, as we try to move our initiative forward to success and designation.鈥�
This support is necessary because no new airports have received CATSA status since Sept. 11, 2001.
In order to keep the momentum going, Jasper鈥檚 marketing agency requested that each of the partnering municipalities renew their support with a contribution of $15,000 to go toward further research and lobbying efforts. (Tourism Jasper will also be contributing $15,000, bringing the total dollar figure to $75,000.)
Council unanimously approved that request at its Feb. 4 regular meeting.
Prior to giving their support, a number of councillors expressed their concern that, although tourism is the industry with the least to gain from a regional airport鈥攚ith forestry and oil and gas likely to take up most of the commercial seats鈥攊t is the industry championing the effort.
Those concerns were tempered, though, by Mayor Richard Ireland.
鈥淚 share some reservations about why others aren鈥檛 [involved]鈥攖hey鈥檙e riding coat tails, I suppose鈥攂ut, our industry, and it鈥檚 the only industry we have, has fully embraced this initiative and believes that even though we are really a bit player in all of this, there is a benefit to be achieved. And, if our industry does better, the community benefits,鈥� he said, explaining why he is in favour of supporting the initiative.
鈥淭he other thing that strikes me,鈥� he continued, 鈥渋s that this is a regional initiative and if we have seen anything in the last five years, it is that the region supports our economy more than anybody else.
鈥淭he reality is, if the other industries鈥攖he resource extraction industries鈥攊n this region do better, then in all likelihood our industry will do better because we are supported by our regional market.鈥�
An airport in Edson would also put Jasper on a 鈥渇airer playing field with Banff,鈥� pointed out Coun. Helen Kelleher-Empey.
If Edson is to get CATSA designation, the next step for the airport would be determining what work needs to be done in order to bring the facility up to snuff for commercial flights. Darling said as things stand, the runway is in great shape and is large enough for such service, but the airport itself will need some work.
A business plan would also need to be developed, so there are flight plans to present to Air Canada and WestJet鈥攚hich have both expressed interest in regional air service to Edson.
The collective $75,000 will go toward those initiatives and toward finding more funding sources for the remainder of the work.
Tourism Jasper鈥檚 first study, completed in 2012, showed that there are 200,000 annual seats available for Edson鈥檚 catchment area鈥攎ost of which are earmarked for oil and gas, with a small percentage being filled by tourists.
But that has the potential to change, said Chad Gulevich of the Jasper Tourism board.
鈥淭he way to get the airlines excited is through oil and gas, because that鈥檚 the first beneficiary of this airline and they鈥檒l start using it almost immediately: that gets the planes flying.
鈥淔or tourism, for our side of things, it takes time. You need that service in place and guaranteed and then the foreign tour companies can start building their itineraries around that.鈥�
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
