SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Discovery Air celebrated the grand opening of its new Yellowknife headquarters on Tuesday inside its Air Tindi Dash 7 hangar on Bristol Ave.

Dave Jennings, president of Discovery Air, addresses attendees of a ceremony held Tuesday to mark the grand opening of the company's new corporate headquarters on Bristol Avenue. To Jennings' right, Bob McLeod, minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, and Chuck Parker, executive vice-president of Northern operations for Discovery Air, listen to the speech. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

President Dave Jennings flew to Yellowknife in an Alpha Jet aircraft (think Top Gun), one of several planes encircling the approximately 150 people who attended the ceremony marking the company's move from London, Ont.

Construction on the new office, located across the street from the hangar, wrapped up on Monday.

The relocation was a requirement of the $34 million loan that the company – which owns Great Slave Helicopters, Discovery Mining Services and Air Tindi – received from the GNWT in 2008.

"In late 2008 … the bottom of the market fell out, not just in terms of a lot of our revenue streams, like mining and exploration, but (also) in terms of the credit markets and our ability to borrow money," said Jennings, clothed in his pilot's jumpsuit. "It was a great deal for both sides – a real win-win.

"In past Discovery lives, there was a bit of a distance between financial people … and the pilots and mechanics up here operating aircraft. I really feel that bridging that gap is going to be extremely good news for Discovery Air."

Several dignitaries from the GNWT were on hand to mark the occasion, including Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger.

"This wasn't a freebie. This wasn't a gimme. There were intense negotiations. There was due diligence," Miltenberger said of the loan. "There was a certain amount of attention paid to it, but we're talking about a Northern company. We're talking about hundreds of jobs at a time when the economy was reeling."

The company's move has created 12 new Yellowknife jobs.

"While 12 new jobs may not seem like much on the surface, the fiscal impact of those positions is that new jobs and new residents, no matter where they are in the territory, translate into dollars that help fund GNWT programs throughout the territory," said Bob McLeod, minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

"The economic impact of these positions will be felt as well. It will be felt in the homes employees occupying these jobs buy, and the apartments they rent. It will be felt in the restaurants they and their families eat in, and the stores where they buy their groceries and clothes."

Not everybody has moved north yet. Maury Wood, a former Yellowknife resident and flight instructor at the company's flight school, which has also moved to Yellowknife, said his permanent residence will remain in Edmonton until the flight school, which is currently inactive, begins to take in students again.

"I'm still living in Edmonton right now," said Wood.

Jennings said the school will likely resume teaching this fall.

Jennings also used the occasion to tell attendees about the company's go-forward plans, which include aiming to raise the company's earnings-per-share to 25 cents, and expanding the company's focus to areas outside the NWT and the rest of Canada.

"Because we have so many specialities across the whole Discovery Air family, we're not going to limit ourselves from a business development point of view to just the North or just Canada," he said.

Discovery Air also owns Top Aces, based in Pointe Claire, QC., and Hicks & Lawrence, based in Dryden, Ont.

The company employs 500 people throughout Canada.