May 29, 2009
Ottawa, ON
Honourable, John Baird P.C., M.P.
Minister of Transport
Place de Ville, Tower C, 29th Floor
330 Sparks Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0N5
Dear Minister Baird,
I write to bring to your attention that a number of rural MPs recently met with representatives of the Regional Community Airports Coalition of Canada in Ottawa.
At that meeting, I asked Mr. Shawn Sutherland, Airport Manager of our Castlegar Airport to follow-up and provide me with the specific concerns of the coalition in regard to the Airside Capital Assistance Program (ACAP).
For your information, I have taken the liberty of attaching the document that reflects the problems which our regional airports are facing. Specifically, the funding for ACAP initially set at $35 million annually is no longer realistic since the number of eligible airports has risen from 71 in 1995 to more than 200 today.
This, together with the growing regulatory burden imposed by Transport Canada, is making it increasingly difficult for our regional airports to provide safe, regulation compliant facilities and services.
Therefore, I respectfully urge you to work with the Regional Community Airports Coalition of Canada to find an acceptable solution to the current problem.
If there is any way that I can help, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Original Signed
Alex Atamanenko, MP
BC Southern Interior
Attachment
c.c. Mr. Shawn Sutherland – Airport Manager – Castlegar Airport 130 – 132 Hall Rd. Castlegar, BC V1N 4M5
All Media
Rural MPs
Regional Community Airports Coalition of Canada
Airside Capital Assistance Program and Airport Regulations
When the National Airports Policy (NAP) was introduced in 1995 the Government of Canada included a capital assistance program for regional/local airports that had scheduled passenger air service. This program (ACAP), was intended to help fund important airside safety capital requirements at the airports that fed passengers from within Canada to the larger National Airport System Airports (NAS). There were 71 such airports identified at that time, many that would be transferred over the next few years to local control – ACAP eligibility requirements included no federal ownership interest or operational subsidy.
Funding for ACAP, initially set at $35M annually, was to come from the anticipated rents Transport Canada would receive from the NAS Airports. It was phased in from 1995, as the Airports were transferred from Transport Canada to local ownership and operation (71 Airports). As demand for capital assistance grew, the need to set priorities nationally began in 1998 (the first year requirements exceeded the $35M
available).
A mandatory review of the program was completed in 2000 (required every 5 years), but the funding was not increase – even though the number of eligible airports continued to grow. A firefighting regulation was gazetted in 2002 for regional airports and $3M was added to ACAP to assist in the purchase of fire trucks – although the regulation was repealed. This $3M is still earmarked for fire trucks first. Another program review was completed in 2005 and the program was renewed, but no increase to the funding envelope was approved. Subscription continued to increase and the number of eligible airports greatly increased with the inclusion of Territorial airport systems (even though those airports had been transferred along with their program funding).
By 2009, and in the midst of a 3rd review, the same funding level continues $35M per year, and $3M for fire trucks. Only now more than 200 airports are eligible to apply for ACAP. Understandably there is a project backlog, and of the 4 levels of priority a project can fall into, Transport Canada encourages sites not to even submit priority 3 or 4 projects (these are projects for life-safety systems like ATB sprinklers, etc.).
Transport Canada has also increased the proportionate share that airport owners must contribute, reducing the federal contribution, in an attempt to spread the $35M farther.
Within this framework, the costs of construction generally, and asphalt pavement specifically (a major portion of ACAP projects are airside paved surfaces), has increased tremendously. Couple that with the growing regulatory burden being imposed by Transport Canada on Airport, and even 15 years of inflation, and it is clear that ACAP is woefully under-funded. The current review should not just confirm the need for the program that is relatively easy to establish; it needs to address the need for an increase in base funding.
The regulatory pressures over the last 15 years have become increasingly burdensome, and costly, for regional/local airports. The advent of Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs) in 1995 has been a vehicle for Transport Canada to shift the responsibility for safety regulation from federal inspectors to the Airport
Owners and Operators, along with the costs – to say nothing of the cost of increased security regulations at airports. Initially a consultation and review process (CARAC), and even economic impact studies of regulations were done prior to implementation; but that is no longer the case. Since 2000, the proliferation of safety regulations has continued unabated, with all the downloaded cost implications as well. This continues, at the same time that funding from ACAP shrinks each year (due to increases in eligible airports and no adjustment, even for inflation).
Meeting the needs of airports to provide safe, regulation compliant, facilities and services – so that domestic air traffic continues to operate from the various regions of the country in to and out of the major airports in Canada, requires a robust and well directed Airport Capital Assistance Program.