Regina airport tower at risk: CEO ‘very concerned’ about potential layoffs

The CEO of the Regina Airport Authority will be sending a letter to Ottawa after hearing news that layoffs could be coming to air traffic control staff.

“Putting it simply, I do not want to see our airport lose air traffic control, period. We’re doing everything we can to stop it. These letters or these notices that you’re hearing about (are) very concerning to us, especially how early we are in this process,” YQR CEO James Bogusz said.

The Canadian Air Traffic Control Association, the union representing air traffic control staff in Canada, said that last month, more than 100 layoff notices were handed out across Canada.

NAV Canada said employees at sites were given “notice that their positions may be declared surplus. As per the collective agreements, these surplus notices take at least six months before coming into effect. In the event that the aeronautical studies do not support a change, surplus letters would be rescinded.”

Bogusz said a review process began in November with a notification letter sent to the Regina airport. Bogusz said there were then some brief conversations in December, with one consultation happening in January.

“We believe there’s still a few months to go before a report would be generated and of course now (there’s) this news about these notices going out. We find this very concerning and we will be reaching out to the Minister of Transport as we are crafting a letter asking them to intervene and to look at this whole process,” Bogusz said.

Bogusz is concerned a decision has already been reached by NAV Canada, which is why he’s reaching out to Ottawa and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra.

“NAV Canada is an incredibly safe company, I don’t doubt for a minute their safety record,” Bogusz said. “I’ve had almost two decades in this industry and I’m confident they run a safe operation.

“But the airport I lead today and the airport I worked at in the past, we had air traffic control services. Air traffic control services provide a level of service to our airport and our community that we simply do not want to lose. We do not want to lose our operational capacity and we’ve been very vocal about this issue ever since we’ve learned about it.”

Mayor Sandra Masters shares his worries about the future of air traffic control in Regina.

She said NAV Canada has not been transparent with their review process.

“They promised a process that would see a report coming back at the end of March, going into the federal minister’s office into April. We would have the opportunity to see the report and discuss it with the minister as well. Clearly, that hasn’t happened,” she said in an interview.

Masters is now planning to communicate with the mayors of the other five communities under review by NAV Canada to send a message.

“We have all written letters, we have all reached out to the government and to NAV Canada,” she explained.

She hopes to play a part in persuading NAV Canada and the federal government to keep Regina’s tower operational.

“We’re a capital city. We need a tower at our airport. It’s vitally important for our community.”