Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list inclu...
The Government of Saskatchewan is joining the chorus of voices urging Ottawa to act and preserve the Regina airport’s air traffic control tower.
As COVID-19 has decimated the aviation industry, NAV Canada has started service level reviews in seven cities, including Regina. The end result could be the closure of Regina’s tower as a cost-cutting measure.
In a letter to federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, Saskatchewan’s highways minster, Fred Bradshaw, said any such decision should not be made in the middle of a pandemic.
“Saskatchewan supports your government’s recent decision to enact restrictions on international air travel, but as these are intended as temporary measures, it is all the more reason that a decision on the future of air traffic control at YQR should not be made at this time,” Bradshaw wrote.
“I am asking you to reverse the layoffs and exclude YQR entirely from a review of any kind, for at least the next year.”
The federal gov't needs to reverse its decision to lay off air traffic controllers at Regina International Airport & hit pause on any consideration of closing the control tower at YQR
Minister Bradshaw has written to the federal minister to tell him to reverse this decision. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/P2QQcNvkJi
— Scott Moe (@PremierScottMoe) February 1, 2021
Concerns about the tower’s future have escalated now that NAV Canada has given layoff notices to a number of air traffic controllers across the country.
As the review into Regina’s tower is still in its early stages, suspicions came to a head last week that the non-profit corporation has already decided to close it.
NAV Canada has denied those claims, saying in a statement last week that “the outcomes of these studies are in no way predetermined.”
It added if the studies do not recommend a reduction in service, those layoff notices would be rescinded.
The call for Ottawa to intervene also came from Michael Kram, the MP for Regina-Wascana.
Kram sits on the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, which is where he heard that NAV Canada executives had been paid $7 million in bonuses as the layoff notices were about to be issued.
He blasted the payouts in a news release, accusing NAV Canada of “tearing down Canada’s air infrastructure, throwing people out of work and devastating the post-COVID recovery of Canadian Communities.”
“It’s certainly very frustrating how on the one hand NAV Canada says, ‘We don’t have enough money to keep these air traffic control towers open,’ but on the other hand, they have an extra $7 million for executive bonuses,” he added during an appearance on Gormley on Tuesday.
Kram called it “adding insult to injury” that some airlines are thinking about centralizing their service to Saskatoon.
He noted Regina may not be able to stage trade shows, conferences, sporting events or cultural activities in the future if the airport doesn’t have an air traffic control tower.
“If we lose our air traffic control tower during the pandemic, once the pandemic is over and people want to fly again, it will be very, very difficult for Regina to attract flights,” Kram said.
The MP has launched an online petition in hopes of keeping the air traffic control tower operational at YQR.
