SAMBAA K'E/TROUT LAKE
The Department of Transportation has closed the tendering process for an airport terminal in Trout Lake, nine months after the runway was completed.

The Trout Lake airport runway has been operating without an airport terminal since it opened in November. Now, the Department of Transportation has found money to build the terminal. - photo courtesy of the GNWT Department of Transportation

The 1,066-metre runway began operating last November after five years of construction.

However, the planned terminal was never built due to project cost overruns amounting to nearly $2 million. As late as April 2015, the government was estimating the appropriate funding would not be in place until the 2016-17 budget year.

Delia Chesworth, director of airports for the Department of Transportation said the department has now revised its budget. The project is to be funded out of the 2015-16 departmental budget.

"The money is coming from the Department of Transportation. We made some changes in the budget to allow for this," she said.

When the runway first opened, the cost of construction for the terminal was estimated at around $450,000. Chesworth confirmed that cost has not changed.

The department is still working with the original designs for the building, which will be 80 square metres in size.

A pre-tender meeting was held Aug. 24 and bidding closed at 3 p.m. on Sept. 3

Now that the deadline has passed, all bids will go to procurement shared services in the Hay River public works building.

"(The bids) will undergo a technical review, and then assuming the project has come in on budget, an award would be made to the lowest compliant bidder," Chesworth said.

Nahendeh MLA Kevin Menicoche questioned Transportation Minister Tom Beaulieu about funding the terminal in March and at that time said passengers have been left to stand outside in the cold while waiting to board a plane or be picked up after landing.

After the department put out its call for tenders, Menicoche said the terminal will be essential, especially in winter months, given the airport is 2.5 kilometres outside Trout Lake.

"We have had contractors and government workers stranded because community members didn't hear planes come in," he said. "This is very much needed."

He also said the community is still waiting for the government to grant them a snowblower for the airport but has had no word yet on if that will happen this year.

Chesworth said to the best of her knowledge, the lack of terminal did not create any specific problems for flyers over the winter.

"It was just business as usual," she said.

If the terminal hits budget, it will bump the total cost of the airport's construction up to more than $11.7 million.

Attempts to reach the Sambaa K'e Dene Band for comment were unsuccessful.

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