City Centre Airport must be grounded
Strathcona airstrip near Josephburg could pick up the slack
Todd Babiak, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 2:04 am
One summer, when I was a university student, I worked in the office of a provincial cabinet minister. The hours were long, the phone calls were angry and the lunches -- occasionally at strip clubs -- were surreal. But the airplane rides, from the City Centre Airport to points north and south, often with rum, were fantastic. I will cherish them for the rest of my life. Since that summer, like 99 per cent of Greater Edmontonians, I have used the International for my flying needs.
Last week at a public hearing, a consortium of northern politicians, rich people and aboriginal leaders who, unlike Edmontonians, can't fathom driving to the International for their flying needs, protested against closing the City Centre Airport -- thereby protesting against reason.
"It appears to us that you're saying you know what we need, and this appears to be paternalistic," said Don Good, a town councillor from Peace River.
Actually, what Edmontonians have been saying since 1995, when an overwhelming majority voted to consolidate flights at the International, is that they know what they need. A more perfect instance of paternalism is a coalition of well-connected politicians and executives from Calgary and rural Alberta bullying Edmonton into subverting democracy.
On Tuesday afternoon, I drove from the Yellowhead north on secondary highway 830, over rolling hills and lush pastures. A few kilometres south of Josephburg, I crested a hill and beheld the majestic towers and smoke plumes of the Industrial Heartland.
Just north of Josephburg, I pulled into the Strathcona Airport, with its shiny new runway.
A couple of years ago, Shell Canada paid approximately $5 million for the runway so they could land 30-seat airplanes a few minutes south of its Scotford Upgrader.
"We have had other companies speak to us about their intention to move to Josephburg," says Tracy Bednard, vice- president of communications for Edmonton Airports. "Shell alone represented nine per cent of our annual revenue."
It's a serene place now, with dogs running around the squat hangars, but it won't be for long. Strathcona County Mayor Cathy Oleson isn't averse to folding Josephburg into the Regional Airport Authority, if more Heartland companies move their flights. "If there is demand, it's certainly something to be looked at," she says. "Maybe that would help serve the region, depending on what Edmonton decides to do with its airports. I get the bigger picture."
As for the teams of oilsands and diamond workers coming into Edmonton for points north, they have been using the International in ever greater numbers, as the fastest-growing major airport in Canada continues to add more and more flights. A gateway only really needs one superb gate.
The net income of the Edmonton City Centre Airport is $500,000, the cost of a 900-square-foot bungalow in Old Strathcona. If it is to remain viable, it will need another $35 million over the next 10 years -- even as paying clients such as Shell move to Josephburg. According to a report released in June, the city could sell the land for a $500-million profit and provide up to $95 million every year in tax revenue.
This would mitigate the need for further sprawl into the farmland surrounding the city, providing homes for up to 32,000 residents in a transit-oriented development. NAIT could expand next door, downtown highrises could rise higher and the city could proceed with plans to extend the LRT not only to NAIT but to a fully-consolidated International Airport.
Not only is all of this "smart growth" a good financial decision, with clear social, cultural and environmental benefits, it coincides with the City of Edmonton Vision for 2040, compiled by citizen groups in a series of community meetings last fall and winter.
The important and agonizing question of medical ambulance isn't as clear as it seems. Edmonton is a continental oddity; most major city health regions are perfectly well-served by an airport in outlying areas, with helicopters. There may be a level of inconvenience in moving training schools from City Centre, but Villeneuve Airport is already the primary location for flight training in the region. Preserving the aeronautical history of the City Centre Airport is easy enough, and there are excellent models in Edmonton's Griesbach neighbourhood and Calgary's Garrison Woods, where military heritage has been incorporated in the design of an area and in its public spaces.
Of course, closing the City Centre Airport will be inconvenient for cabinet ministers, for rural mayors and councillors, for executives and aboriginal leaders. It's wise to hear their views but, with respect, this isn't their city. The longer we delay this excruciatingly obvious decision, to spare their disappointment, the worse it will be -- for tenants at the airport, for developers and city planners, and for Edmontonians who have wanted flight consolidation at a high-calibre International Airport for 13 years.
"City Centre is an expensive airport, it's an old airport and it doesn't pay for itself," says Bednard.
"But either way, we need a decision. The continued uncertainty is bad for everyone."
Well, not everyone. I have been on those wonderful little airplanes. I've taken that quick drive down 109th Street to the legislature building. It's deliciously convenient, and if I still had access to it, I would want the uncertainty to go on forever.
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© The Edmonton Journal 2008
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/ne...?id=eb151112-dfe6-4b7c-99f5-3b6bac119f16
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