Let鈥檚 say you decide to renovate your home or put an addition on it.
What鈥檚 one of the first questions that arises?
How much is it going to cost? Naturally, that鈥檚 what you need to know. Of course affordability is front and central.
And yet some officials from the Department of Infrastructure have been making stops here and there to give presentations on potentially expanding the Yellowknife Airport without any dollar figures attached. Oddly, this is known as a 鈥渕aster plan.鈥�
They are providing five options 鈥� some clearly more expensive than others 鈥� but all with unknown price tags. Cost estimates weren鈥檛 even provided when briefing the Legislative Assembly鈥檚 Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment on March 31.
And that was despite previous stakeholder comments that included: 鈥淒ifficult to evaluate options without costs. How will project be funded?鈥�
The existing airport terminal building is a little over 59,000 square feet. It was built in 1967 and upgraded in 1998 and 2005.
The master plan, completed before Covid-19 struck, projected strong airport traffic growth of 2.4 per cent per year. As the Infrastructure officials acknowledged recently, 鈥渢hat鈥檚 no longer possible鈥� due to the pandemic. In fact, the opposite has occurred. Passenger traffic has plummeted, down a whopping 62 per cent in 2021 compared to 2019.
Don鈥檛 get the wrong impression. This isn鈥檛 an argument to grind all airport enhancements to a halt. There have been and continue to be improvements to the airport鈥檚 fleet of maintenance vehicles and equipment. There are runway and lighting upgrades and better drainage initiatives. The airport lounge is being expanded too. There鈥檚 been approximately $24 million worth of improvements since 2018. The facility has not been sitting idle.
And remember, since 2017, the airport has been able to retain revenues from such things as airport improvement fees to fund its own capital projects.
At this point in time, we certainly don鈥檛 need the Taj Mahal of airports. As Frame Lake MLA Kevin O鈥橰eilly pointed out, many people simply want better service: 鈥淭hey want bridges, they want less waiting time, maybe a little bit better quality food, nicer seating, more space.鈥�
Yellowknife North MLA Rylund Johnson knocked the ambition to create an airport hotel and a bunch of retail space when there鈥檚 already an abundance of vacant retail space in Yellowknife鈥檚 downtown, which is only 10 minutes away from the airport. He鈥檚 right 鈥� there鈥檚 no need for the airport to be competing with downtown businesses.
The territorial government should concentrate its efforts on helping badly wounded NWT tourism operations get back on their feet. There鈥檚 years worth of rebuilding to be done for those who survived the onslaught of the pandemic, a crisis that may or may not be easily manageable in the future, depending on the potency of the next variant.
So let鈥檚 approach any airport overhaul at a very slow and deliberate pace, not a full gallop.
A public engagement session is supposed to take place mid-month and there鈥檚 a survey that will soon be available through the GNWT鈥檚 website. Those would be a good opportunities to let these Infrastructure officials know that their plans to expand the airport should be aborted for now.
