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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Wildrose party out of Alberta would try to purchase Edmonton's City Centre Airport if it were handed the reins of power.

Danielle Smith: Leader of the Wildrose party of Alberta. The Wildrose now has four MLAs in the provincial legislature. -

Party leader Danielle Smith said Wildrose wants to protect the quality of health care that her north Albertan constituents, and residents of the NWT, receive.

"I've heard through my travels that Northern communities are concerned about losing access to Edmonton airport and the medical services provided through a downtown hospital," Smith told Yellowknifer. "There are so many communities that would be affected by the closure of this airport. There can be such devastation caused by unnecessary delays."

The municipal airport is the current destination of 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 Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel says won't happen for two to three years until upgrades to the international airport are complete, medevac patients will be rerouted to Edmonton International Airport, adding a possible 30 minutes to a patient's trip to the hospital.

The airport's closure would make way for the City of Edmonton to sell and develop on the land which the city's website says will "Keep our city growing and strong," by bringing in increased tax revenues and needed money from the sale of the land.

"The people that are really affected by the closure have no say," said Mayor Gord Van Tighem, who says he's been working on this issue since 1988, when he was a member of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce.

Van Tighem said a plebiscite held by the City of Edmonton last fall on the closure of the airport was unfair. "The plebiscite was only for residents of Edmonton, so all of the people in northern Alberta that depend on that airport didn't hold any sway."

Smith said the government didn't listen to a grassroots movement to protect the medevac services.

"I think we need to work collaboratively, between the province and Edmonton. That's what we're struggling through, I'm hoping we can start a new debate and dialogue about this.

The development plans detailed on the City of Edmonton's website will respect the city's aviation heritage by enhancing the Aviation Museum and, "May be even creating a mall of museums and ensuring we honour and respect our proud aviation past."

Previously, Adlair Aviation co-owner Paul Laserich has described this situation to Yellowknifer as "terrible."

"The municipal airport saves lives," he said. "How do you put a value on a human life?"

Laserich noted the close proximity of the municipal airport to Edmonton's hospitals can make the difference in life and death situations.

"People in Edmonton can go to any hospital they want. They can take a cab or an ambulance there. We don't have those choices in Yellowknife."

Van Tighem has taken the stance the airport closure is not a done deal.

"I anticipate that it will go to the courts," said Van Tighem, adding he thinks the litigation will have a good chance of preventing the development, adding there have been recent rulings where the federal government stopped municipalities from closing airports because they exist as public transportation nationally.

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