The Government of Ontario has formed the SuperBuild
Corporation with a mandate to improve the province’s infrastructure planning and
priority setting by creating partnerships with public and private sectors. When
the corporation issued its first report in April 2002, COPA responded:
To: David Lindsay, President and CEO, The Ontario SuperBuild Corporation, Frost
Building South, 6th Floor, 7 Queen’s Park Crescent, Toronto ON M7A 1Y7.
“Dear Mr. Lindsay:
“I recently read your Ontario SuperBuild Corporation Progress Report for the
Fiscal Year 2001-2002 and I wanted to take this opportunity to write and
congratulate you.
As is evident in the report, the Ontario SuperBuild Corporation, under your
guidance, has completed a myriad of significant projects in dozens of different
fields. This shows that provincial money can be used wisely to make Ontario a
better place for everyone to live in. I was particularly impressed with your
attention to the needs of surface transportation in the province. Your
investment in highways and railways is notable and commendable.
“The one area of provincial infrastructure that is remarkable in its absence
from the report is airports. As I am sure you are aware the Government of
Ontario invested strongly in airport development in the past. It was through
this investment that many remote and northern communities became the viable and
successful places that they are today. The investment in small airports in
southern Ontario did much to move people and goods, promote commerce and bring
prosperity to the province.
“Many of those airports are now suffering from crumbling infrastructure and
there is a need for continued attention to keep the economic prosperity of the
province on track. The fact that the federal government is not significantly
supporting any of the smaller airports any more makes it that much more
imperative that Ontario continue to invest in airports.
“I invite you to contact me if you would like to discuss Ontario airports and I
encourage you to work with the Airport Management Conference of Ontario to set a
future course for the Ontario airports infrastructure. I hope that next year’s
progress report will contain as much good news for Ontario airports as it does
for highways and railways this year.”
Yours truly, Kevin Psutka, COPA President and Chief Executive Officer