by Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 01/97) - It's hardly a classroom setting: Students bundled in parkas and heavy boots, driving front-end loaders, caterpillars, and dump trucks clearing and levelling land.

They're gaining heavy-equipment operating skills and in the process building and airstrip for Rae-Edzo.

Rae's Narcisse Chocolate is one of 12 students hired to train and work. He's learning how to drive a Cat, a skill he hopes one day will land him a job with a big mining company like BHP.

"This is great, This is lots of fun," said Chocolate standing on the soft muskeg he just levelled.

Chocolate, who has a wife and six children, doesn't get a lot of work. He feels proud to have the opportunity to work on a project that means a lot to the community for a long time.

"We can use an airport. It's faster for getting around," he said.

William Weyallon, has also been fortunate enough to get a job on the airport project.

"I need a few more hours. It's good training. We can go to BHP after that or wherever a job comes up, I guess," said Weyallon.

The idea for an airport has been in the planning stages for many years.

Construction was finally initiated Oct. 6.

Crews have cleared a 1.2-kilometre access road from the highway, a parking lot, an industrial area and a spot for a terminal building.

They've also flattened a 200-metre taxi-way to a 900-metre runway, which will allow 737s and Hercules transport planes to land.

Moheb Michael, a management and engineering consultant hired to oversee the project, said he is pleased at the student's progress and the efforts of the partners involved.

The community is providing the labor, local companies are renting out equipment, the hamlet is paying the wages, the territorial government has provided the infrastructure dollars and Arctic College has offered the instructors to teach the students the necessary skills.

"We're seeing the community create employment, attracting businesses and creating economic opportunities for the community," said Michael.

Michael said the focus of the program is on training people for future careers. The airport is simply a byproduct.

"Production wasn't as much the goal as the training."

The efforts in Rae-Edzo to build a new airport strip is an example other communities can follow, he concluded.

Not a government idea

Dan Marion, Rae-Edzo's, mayor figures it's about time the airport project got off the ground.

For a community with a population slightly short of 2,000, they can use the employment.

"The straight economics of having an airport in Rae drives the reasons," said Marion citing that 300 people applied for the training course but only 12 were hired.

For 25 years Rae has waited for the airport but various reasons has always been turned down.

One of the main reasons is the community's proximity to Yellowknife.

But without government support, the community decided anyway to spend their $270,000 in government infrastructure money -- Rae-Edzo's total dollars for the year based in their population and needs assess -- on the project.

The money is usually put towards building playgrounds, parks or other smaller projects.

"The government wasn't going to build it so we're going to build it. We're doing it as a community," said Marion.

This is not the first time Rae-Edzo has received the short end of the stick from government, according to Marion.

The way the GNWT calculates its formula funding doesn't treat Rae-Edzo fairly compared with other communities of a similar size, he said.

Fort Rae is still using a 1980 dump truck, which the government paid $30,000 for at an auction. The water and sewer system, laid in the late 1960s, is antiquated and they are still using a 1957 gas emergency fire pump to boost lines at water mains during a fire.

And, this year they get only $270,000 in infrastructure money.

"This is only a baby in the amount of the total for the airport," said Marion. "A couple of million would get us something adequate for sure."

Rae-Edzo is going to continue lobbying government for support but after the airstrip is built, Marion said they won't be accepting any government hand-outs to help cover operation and administration costs of the airport.