by Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 15/97) - Resolute's flight service station has dodged a bullet. But the gun is still loaded.

NAV Canada's first cost priority in the North is Resolute's flight service station.

At a Tuesday meeting, the community was told changes would be coming by the end of January.

"They (originally) indicated there would be changes. They are on a mission of cutting costs," Resolute SAO Dan Leaman said.

"It was a real shock. They made a presentation, then told us Resolute has a top priority for being dealt with," Co-op hotel manager Terry Jesudason said Wednesday.

But after subsequent discussions with community members, Resolute will be on the same footing with other Northern communities, Don Henderson, leading NAV Canada's aeronautical survey team, said Thursday.

Because it is very expensive to operate the buildings which house the Resolute station, NAV Canada's move to reduce infrastructure costs might have meant a reduction in services.

Henderson said NAV Canada has found a way to lower Resolute costs.

This means the flight service station will continue until at least the end of next year.

Leaman said Resolute has gradually seen a decline at the airport, losing emergency response services and having a runway shut down.

The last thing he wants is for the airport to become a "community landing strip."

The Resolute station operates out of an old and rambling set of military buildings that cost a small fortune to heat and maintain.

"The urgency has been taken out of Resolute," Henderson said.

But that does not mean the station has been removed from the chopping block.

Members of many Northern communities, Resolute included, are nervous that NAV Canada will reduce airport services by replacing flight service stations with community aerodrome radio stations (CARS).

"We want it to be thorough and complete," Northern Air Transport Association executive director Don Douglas said about NAV Canada's look at the North.

There are about a dozen flight service stations and 32 CARS in the North.

Going from one to the other "won't change who can use the airport," GNWT Arctic Airports director Jim Winsor said.

"NAV Canada has a corporate objective to reduce costs, our concern is that safety, not just cost, should dictate decisions," he said.

Flight service stations provide weather and other information to aircraft. They are separate from air traffic control. The North's only air traffic control centre in Yellowknife.

NAV Canada is the private corporation that paid $1.5 billion to takeover the country's air navigation systems from the federal government.

After a Christmas break, the Northern aeronautical survey team will visit more communities, among them Rankin Inlet and Baker Lake.