by Chris Meyers Almey
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 23/97) - With 52 airports in the Northwest Territories to look after, safety is the No. 1 consideration for George Poirier.

Poirier has reached the pinnacle of success in his field, having recently been certified as an accredited airport executive by the International Association of Airport Executives.

There are only about 26 people in Canada who can put AAE after their names and he's the first in the NWT.

The thesis he had to write to reach this level of professional status was the same as writing a master's thesis.

Following military service in the North, Poirier started out with the air traffic service, operating a community aerodrome radio station at Spence Bay (now Taloyoak) in 1980.

Then he was appointed regional airport officer responsible for all six aerodrome radio stations and airport operations in the Keewatin for almost six years, ensuring the safe operation of airports at places like Coral Harbour and Rankin Inlet.

From there, Poirier took up a new position at headquarters in Yellowknife as airport operations co-ordinator, giving technical advice and support to the five regional managers in the NWT.

After that he moved into the role of manager of program development and standards.

A couple of years ago Poirier assumed a new role resulting from the 1994 federal government transfer of the Arctic A-class airports, including Yellowknife's, to the GNWT.

The small community airports were turned over to municipalities in 1991.

As airport training programs co-ordinator, Poirier has to ensure that all personnel at airports meet the training requirements necessary to maintain the twice-yearly inspections by Transport Canada so the airports can retain certification.

If an airport is decertified, an air carrier cannot legally operate a scheduled service and that could lead not only to a lawsuit, but the loss of an essential service to those people affected.

So he has developed training courses for a variety of people who operate the airports, to keep their high standards maintained.

With the small airports turned over to community governments to operate, special courses have been designed to train municipal administrators, town foremen or elected councillors to look after their administration and operations.

Now Aurora College has taken over the delivery of those courses on behalf of the territorial Department of Transportation, but he still delivers them when demand exceeds the college's capacity, as was the case a few weeks ago in Arviat and in Fort Smith this month.

Poirier is also responsible for the airfield maintenance technician certification program, which may take up to two years to complete. The actual training is done by qualified site trainers at the airports.