by Arthur Milnes
Northern News Services

FORT SIMPSON (Dec 12/97) - The message was as loud as it was clear -- don't even think of removing local flight services staff from Fort Simpson's airport operations.

Officials from NAV Canada -- the not-for-profit corporation Ottawa has set up to administer flight services operations at Canada's airports -- were told this bluntly at a public meeting held in Fort Simpson last week.

And, suspicion hung heavy in the room that the company has already decided to close the local operation as a cost-saving measure.

Village Mayor Norm Prevost even directed the term "liar" at NAV Canada officials during the three-hour meeting.

Don Henderson, from NAV Canada's Service Design and Aeronautical Studies department, hotly denied the suggestion, saying over and over again that his company was in the village to study and learn. He said that no decision had been made about the future of Fort Simpson operations.

"I'm sorry that you're not comfortable with the process and that it makes you upset," he told the crowd of about 40 people. "But, we have to do it."

He also said that a total of 110 sites across the country were being studied and that as many as 50 flight service stations in southern Canada could be closed.

Prevost, who also expressed concerns about the timing and the first location chosen for the meeting, said the study appeared to be a cost-costing exercise and nothing else.

"I don't see anything in here that says you're studying to improve services," he said. "Is there a budget problem? Is your funding being cut back?"

Prevost also said that flight services have a direct impact on everyone -- not just pilots and operators -- in Fort Simpson. He pointed to the fact the local hospital has now been shut down and that air service is a vital health link.

Fort Simpson RCMP Cpl. Tonia Enger passionately described the value of having local residents operating flight services in Fort Simpson.

"I'm telling you then that if you take local people away, the safety of people who fly will be directly affected," she said. "If those local people weren't there, we probably would have lost people in the bush had services been located in Yellowknife, Hay River or Edmonton. Those people wouldn't have the local contacts."

A final decision will be made in September of 1998.