SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Northerners medevaced to Edmonton will "fly and land safely and securely" whether they go to the City Centre Airport or the Edmonton International Airport, says Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel.

The mayor was in Yellowknife Thursday to speak with aboriginal and political leaders about the impact the closure of the City Centre Airport will have on Northerners.

The municipal airport is the current destination of all medevac flights coming out of the North. When the flights land, an ambulance is waiting to take the patient to the hospital - a ride that takes a few minutes, given the airport's proximity to the Royal Alexandra Hospital and the Stollery Children's Hospital.

With the closure of the airport, which Mandel says won't happen for two to three years until upgrades to the international airport are complete, medevac patients will be re-routed to Edmonton International Airport, adding about 30 minutes to the trip.

"If it's an emergency, the fact would be they would be transported by the most effective, efficient, secure and safe manner for their health," said Mandel. "So if it's critical care, they will be taken by helicopter to the roof of the hospital and be taken care of."

David Wind, a representative for the Yellowknife Seniors' Society, read Mandel a statement from the society at a closed meeting held Thursday morning with business and community leaders.

The mayor asked that media not attend.

Wind said the seniors' society is most concerned with the extra time it could take for emergency patients to receive care.

In response, the mayor "downplayed the additional time that it would take to get people to hospital and brought up things like maybe it will possible to transport the worst cases by helicopter," said Wind.

Mandel also suggested setting up a triage facility at the airport that would sort the patients on the severity of their ailments, and decide the best course of action to be taken, Wind said.

"These were ... statements that discounted the impact that the closure of the municipal airport would have on the health outcomes of patients being medevaced to Edmonton.

"When you're faced with a serious medical condition and you're being transported to a major facility in Edmonton, time is of the essence."

Sandy Lee, minister of Health and Social Services, said the people of the North can be assured the GNWT is involved in the Alberta Health Quality Council's review of the airport closure.

The council won't consider cost, said Lee, but it will take into consideration the increased time for medevac transportation.

She said cost isn't the most important issue anyway.

"It's not the cost issue, it's how do you do it," she said.

"How do you make sure that there are people and steps in place so that when somebody lands at the international airport that things are very organized with staff and vehicles and equipment ... to make sure that those patients are looked after."

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