Can the Minister indicate to the House here when was the last time those airport fees were reviewed?

I would have to get that detail for the Member. There was a little bit when, I believe it was in the 15th Assembly, we had to find

$11 million to use for the upgrades to the main terminal building. But prior to that, probably 2001 was the last time that fees were reviewed. I believe it was just specific to landing fees in 2006, that we had to find an offset for the $11 million to upgrade the terminal at YZF.

Where I’m kind of going with this is that I believe it was, as the Minister put it, an initiative that was overdue in terms of the reviewing of airport fees. Does the current process allow that these fees are being reviewed on a more frequent basis? Is there a provision or a proviso within the review program that will not allow this to lapse, that we actually are keeping up with either inflation or use of our facilities?

The Member is correct. We hadn’t done it for a while so there’s a bit of a shock there. We’re going to try to, as we move forward, look at it on an inflationary basis, year to year, so that there’s not a big gap of 10 years before you look at fees again. Yes, we’re doing just that.

There has been a lot of activity lately here in the ITI sector. Where I’m going with this is that our international exposure has now heightened the awareness of many other countries possibly wishing to use Yellowknife as a destination for their air buses. Edelweiss Air was one of those potentials that were out of Zurich. There were some complications a number of years ago looking at runway length and other, I guess, barriers to looking at increasing our exposure of our airport system to the national and international audience. Can the Minister indicate to the House here if there are ongoing dialogues or discussions with any third-party airlines, international airlines that could be seeing increased traffic, and are we equipped for

that international business which could be a huge benefit to the tourism sector of the Northwest Territories?

Yes, there is. There are those types of discussions that happen and Edelweiss is one of them. We certainly have to be taking a look at the infrastructure that we have at YZF. Runway length has been talked about. That would probably require $40 million to $50 million to lengthen the runway. Also, other infrastructure that would be required to handle different types of aircraft, and also the requirement of customs personnel and a customs handling area at YZF. The dialogue continues and we certainly understand and appreciate, from a tourism perspective, what having direct international flights show up in Yellowknife and in the Northwest Territories could mean to the tourism sector here in the Northwest Territories. It’s a dialogue that we continue to have but it is going to cost some money. If we can find a carrier that does want to pursue that, we’re going to have to come up with some sizeable dollars to make it happen.

I am totally in agreement with the Minister here. If we can open up our doors to the world, I think our tourism budget would reflect that.

The concern I have is that within the premise of this operations budget for airports there is no provision what I see here for future thinking or future growth in that area of attracting. I would assume the provisions and putting together a proper study or planning document or emphasis on capital, which I know we’re not discussing, but this is about operations, and operations means planning. If these discussions are indeed transpiring, what reassurances do we have that the department is now working towards a battle plan, so to speak, towards making this a viable option for the people of the Northwest Territories? As I see it, the budget here doesn’t seem to be accommodating that. Can the Minister or designate indicate is this something that we may see in the ‘13-14 budget?

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Next, I have Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Madam Chair. A couple questions here. I was really glad that Mr. Dolynny raised the issue of airport parking. I’ve had a couple of unfortunate experiences with parking at the

Yellowknife Airport. I guess I would like to know from the Minister… I think he’s aware. I think he’s been caught once or twice as well. I appreciate that we want to keep traffic moving in front of the terminal building. We don’t want people parking there and leaving their vehicles, but I do have a concern with the negative attitude, I guess, that is put upon people dropping somebody off. If I’m dropping someone off and they happen to have several pieces of luggage, and I get out of the vehicle to help them take that into the terminal building, I’ve come back out and found that I have a ticket.

I guess I’d like to know whether or not the Minister would look at the whole parking policy, I guess, or the way that we enforce the drop-off zone in front of the terminal building. It would seem to me that we could probably be a little nicer, I guess, so to speak, and we could still enforce the fact that you’re there to drop off or, in some cases, pick up. But, basically, I think we could have a little bit more leniency with the, I’m going to call them Nazi’s, but I’m smiling when I say that, the parking police who roam up and down. I guess I’d just like to know whether or not the Minister and the department would have a look at that particular policy and the way it’s enforced.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank the Member for raising the concern. As far as airports go, we feel that the parking at YZF here in Yellowknife, there’s one hour free parking for anybody that wants to park in the lot. We have to remember there are drop-off areas there so people can drop folks off. There are carts for luggage. From a safety perspective, we have to keep traffic moving in that area, so we can’t have congestion in that area. The parking enforcement at the airport is that it’s meant to be a deterrent to people leaving their vehicles outside of the airport. Not everybody takes advantage of that, but there are some people who would leave… If the parking enforcement isn’t what it is, people would leave their vehicles out there and we’d be faced with situations of congestion. Again, we take that issue very seriously. Like you said, we’ve got the one-hour free parking, which is very generous if you look at other airports around the country. There are not too many airports that offer any free parking at all. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that we don’t want people stopping there, but maybe we could just brainstorm a little. I mean, sitting here listening to the answer, I totally agree that we don’t want people parking in the drop-off zone, but maybe if we put luggage carriers outside. You know, something like that just to make life a little simpler. There are a lot of people who simply

drop somebody off and move on and you cannot get out of your vehicle unless you want to get a parking ticket. So something like that would make things a little more inviting.

I also wondered with regard to Yellowknife Airport in particular, but a number of years ago there was quite a discussion about changing the management at the Yellowknife Airport, giving the management over to an airport authority and/or the City of Yellowknife, something like that. Has that thought died, so to speak, or is there still an intent of sometime down the road to bring back the possibility of an airport authority at Yellowknife? Thank you.

That is with the program review office and that continues to be a question of where do we want to take that. Certainly, if there’s some political direction on what happens with an airport authority here in Yellowknife, that’s something we look forward to input from Members on their thoughts on an airport authority here in Yellowknife. Thank you.

I look forward to the program review office recommendation, whenever it comes forward. My recollection of the last time around is it didn’t seem to be financially viable, so to speak.

My last question here has to do with runway upgrades. Over the last number of years we’ve been upgrading runways here and there across the territory. Does this budget include any upgrades to any of our runways? Thank you.

That would be under the capital so, no, it’s not in this budget. Thank you.

Thank you. Transportation, activity summary, airports, operations expenditure summary, $29.704 million.

Agreed, thank you. Page 11-18, Transportation, activity summary, airports, grants and contributions, contributions, $30,000.

Page 11-19, Transportation, information item, airports, active positions. Ms. Bisaro.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Just a question here. I note that we are increasing the staffing in this budget by three. Could I know where they’re going and why? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Two are directly related to the safety management system, one located in Fort Simpson and the other in Inuvik, and also a technical service officer

airports division located in Yellowknife. That would also deal primarily with the SMS. Thank you.