TC announces airport funding

The new Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, Lawrence Cannon has recently announced the airports that will be funded under the Transport Canada Airports Capital Assistance Program (ACAP) for 2006-07 and 2007-08.

The airport funding for 2006-07 includes $24M and identifies a further $4M for the following fiscal year.

While COPA supports the concept of the federal government providing ACAP funding, the program continues to suffer from three major problems that make it completely ineffective in addressing the problem of crumbling infrastructure at Canada’s airports.

First, ACAP only provides funding for certified airports that have year-round regularly scheduled passenger service. This means that the funding is limited to about six per cent of the certified airports and registered aerodromes in Canada.

There is no federal funding available to the remaining 94 per cent of the sites. This limitation effectively means that ACAP is for the benefit of the airlines only and not the rest of Canadians who rely on non-airline aviation.

Airports that are ignored under ACAP include those that provide critical community services such as medevac, forest firefighting, agricultural operations, business access to communities, flight training and personal transportation.

Second, the allocated amount of money is far too small for even the few airports that qualify for funding. The amount for 2006-07 works out to only $268,000 per airport with airline service – totally inadequate to address the needs of even these airports.

To put it into perspective, if the funding for 2006-07 were spread out over the whole national network of certified airports and registered aerodromes it would come to just $17,000 per site.

Third, COPA has continually called for a review of the National Airports Policy, of which ACAP is but one component. The policy has served Canada’s transportation needs very poorly since it was put in place in July 1994. The National Airports Policy was introduced by then Transport Minister Doug Young.

In January 2003, the Globe and Mail quoted Young as saying that the National Airports Policy was the worst decision of his career. The recently announced funding by the new government shows that the policy is still not working for Canada and needs to be reviewed.

COPA will continue to push the new government for a review of the National Airports Policy and for increased funding for a wider scope of airports.