Despite delays, Tourism Jasper remains optimistic that the Edson Airport will one day have the security clearance it needs to land commercial flights.
At this time last year, Jasper’s marketing organization—as well as its partners: the municipalities of Jasper, Hinton, Edson and Yellowhead County—was anticipating a meeting between then-premier Alison Redford and Transport Minister Lisa Raitt. But, shortly after, that meeting was cancelled, when Raitt called for a review of the Canada Transportation Act.
That review, however, has not yet begun and Raitt is currently on a leave of absence following a cancer scare.
“When she gets back this review, from my understanding, will start,” said Mary Darling, CEO of Tourism Jasper.
As part of that review, the federal government will look at its cap on airports with Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) designation. No new airports have received the designation since Sept. 11, 2001. There are currently 89 airports that have it, allowing them to do security scans and, in turn, offer commercial flights.
“All we need is for them to say yes to CATSA security clearance,” said Darling, who noted that once that’s done, she and her regional partners can move forward with improving the airport terminal and creating business plans to present to Air Canada and WestJet—both of which have expressed interest in regional air service to Edson.
“Right now [the federal government has] written their laws so well that there’s 89 airports on the list that have this designation and those can’t be swapped in or out and they can’t be decreased and they can’t be increased.”
In an effort to get the designation for the Edson Airport, Darling has been to Ottawa to lobby the government, along with a number of her regional partners.
“We’ve gone twice now,” she said. “In 2013 we started to have conversations with Transport Canada: the policy and stakeholder advisor for the office of the Minister of Transport, the director of strategic planning and business for Transport Canada, these types of people.”
At that meeting, they came with a letter of support from then-premier Alison Redford, and in November 2014, when they returned for further meetings, they came with a letter from Premier Jim Prentice.
“So we’ve had the provincial support right from the get-go; regardless of leadership change, it is there. The province wants to see it happen and the federal government is looking for how they can make it happen.
“We’re optimistic that the political will is there.”
Tourism Jasper’s first study, completed in 2012, showed that there are 200,000 annual seats available for Edson’s catchment area—most of which are earmarked for oil and gas, with a small percentage being filled by tourists.
Since it first started advocating for regional air service, Tourism Jasper has touted it as a way of closing the gap between Jasper and an airport, putting the park on par with Banff National Park, which is an hour and 45 minutes from the Calgary airport.
Nicole Veerman
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