Kathleen Lippa
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 24/03) - Audience members grilled Sandy Hopkins of Hopkins and Associates, and other panelists at a Tuesday afternoon workshop about how the Yellowknife airport should be run in the future.

Recommendations for a New Governance Model for Yellowknife Airport, said airport improvement fees would almost certainly be imposed on travellers to keep the Yellowknife airport running.

When speaking about the airport authority, he added it is a "glaring" conflict of interest to have representatives from airline carriers sit on an airport panel.

"Being on the inside would benefit that company," Hopkins said.

Many audience members strongly disagreed, saying representatives from carriers would give the authority more insight when making decisions.

An airport authority is usually an independently financed non-profit organization directed by members of the private sector to make airport operations better.

"A lot of people have a lot of money invested in the airport," said Gord Stewart, a business person associated with the airport.

"So you'd better be very, very careful how you cover that asset."

Richard Nerysoo, former premier of the NWT, said representatives from the mining industry should definitively be invited to sit on the new authority.

"And I would make one suggestion," he added.

"That the aboriginal representative is someone from the business community, not put there for a political reason."

Al Phillips, from the University of Manitoba Transport Institute, gave an overview of the economic impact study that's been done on the Yellowknife Airport.

According to Phillips, the future looks bright for Yellowknife.

"It's an important asset to Yellowknife," he said.

"I'm sure you'll manage it efficiently."

He projects $52 million in labour income from a revamped airport.

As for the potential for the airport, "It's too early to tell," Coun. David McCann said following Phillips' presentation. "He was giving us a numerical baseline," McCann said.

"There has been a report produced, and we're going to be studying that with some interest."