SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Winter may be coming to a close, but Bruce Jonasson is already thinking about how Yellowknife can make money off of next year's cold temperatures.

A Honeywell Aerospace Boeing 757 in Yellowknife on March 20 with a custom mounted turbine engine. The aircraft was in town for cold-weather testing of the turbine engine, a process Adlair Aviation's Bruce Jonasson said could help significantly boost Yellowknife's economy through spun-off business tourism. - Walter Strong/NNSL photo

Clad in a chocolate-brown leather jacket, the manager of business development at Adlair Aviation wants to make the city the premiere destination for cold-weather testing over Alaska, Churchill, Man., or Iqaluit. "We have the best cold. The best," he told Yellowknifer, citing the consistently dry winter temperatures known for reaching -40 Celsius or lower. "We've got it, why not sell it?"

While luxury car maker Porsche also often cold-weather tests vehicles in the city and the EC175 helicopter was also tested here last February, Jonasson's focus is specifically on the economic benefits of aerospace testing.

"It's huge because they're like tourists on steroids," he said, adding the money spent on car rentals, hotel accommodations, souvenirs and sightseeing packages in addition to all of the regular cold-weather testing work.

During a recent visit to Adlair's offices in March, a 12-person team from Bombardier, along with two representatives from Transport Canada, were in Yellowknife for more than a week overseeing testing of wing-edge de-icing technology on a business jet.

Jonasson said Yellowknife Airport's position as a well-capitalized transportation hub with its hangars, ramp space, equipment and other resources meant the company can easily put together a package using resources from companies like Strategic Aviation, First Air and Buffalo Airways. He cited his experience with helping land a double-decker A380 at the airport in Iqaluit in 2006, where a team of 50 oversaw cold-weather testing for 10 days.

"I personally did all the logistics," he said proudly, explaining the 853-seat aircraft had its first North American landing in Nunavut's capital.

But even with all the potential economic benefits, Jonasson said his business can't take on this initiative alone. "For a little company like us to roll that money into marketing and hope that maybe you get a customer is dangerous," he said.

However, he doesn't think the overall project would cost the municipal and territorial governments a huge amount of money to execute. The first step would just be to determine what exactly the economic benefits of business tourism would be, especially if those visitors are not paying the discounted group rates commonly offered to other tourists. Other airline companies at the Yellowknife Airport also stand to benefit through equipment and hangar rentals.

While Iqaluit's airport has the longest runway in the North, Yellowknife's facility has long discussed extending one of theirs by 760 metres which would allow for much larger aircraft.

Jonasson said he plans to approachapproaching Yellowknife's city government and the GNWT for broader assistance with targeted marketing and analysis of the potential economic benefits. Specifically, financial resources for a tourism campaign similar to the one made for "Spectacular NWT."

Jonasson said he would take also business tourism promotion to large events such as industry conventions,

"There's a lot more reasonably low-hanging fruit out there to simulate the economy."

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