Thorunn Howatt
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Jun 22/01) - Yellowknife's new high-tech radar site could foreshadow a $25-million airport expansion.
"We've been doing some preliminary work for Yellowknife to accommodate international flights," said NWT Transportation Minister Vince Steen after Nav Canada unveiled its new $6 million radar system. He added the expansion would be done in stages, including runway, tarmac and parking to accommodate larger aircraft.
"It would have to be an effort between the city and the territorial government," said Steen.
It would open up Yellowknife to international flights. To take advantage of those new tourism opportunities, hotels and tourist infrastructure would have to grow to support them.
"One can't be done in isolation of the other," said Steen.
With the opening up of Russian airspace, planes flying between North America to Asia can now get to their destinations faster and cheaper by going over the North Pole. The polar over-flights would mean busier Northern airspace and perhaps stops in Yellowknife.
Steen applauded Nav Canada for its contribution to Northern flight safety via the new radar site. "It's the tip of the iceberg," he said.
Previously a government entity, Nav Canada became a private company nearly five years ago, providing air traffic control, flight information, weather briefings and electronic navigation aids.
Its radar station will improve Northern air-traffic safety, said Nav Canada President and Chief Executive Officer John Crichton. The system, known as secondary surveillance radar, means more effective coverage for flights arriving and departing Yellowknife airport.
Crichton expects Nav Canada will install radar sites in other Northern locations like Iqaluit, La Ronge in Saskatchewan and Kuujjuaq in Quebec. A similar site for the James Bay region, possibly near Rankin Inlet, might also be built within three years.
He said Nav Canada spent $70 million in the North of $930 million that it has invested nationally.
"The North is where we lack radar," he said.
Crichton said air-traffic movements at the Yellowknife airport increased to 61,000 last year from 51,000 in 1999. A further 24,000 aircraft movements occur yearly at water bases within the Yellowknife air traffic control zone.
Mike Wood, president of Arctic Excursions, a Yellowknife-based charter aircraft company, agreed with Steen that expanding the airport is important to helping Northern tourism.
"You can't just build a runway and expect people to show up," he said.
"What's the point of bringing people into the North from Europe if you don't have anywhere to put them?"
