Edmonton City Centre Airport

[W5]

From another forum:

Betrayed by City Council
Written by John Chalmers
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
If city council’s diabolical plan to close Edmonton City Centre Airport is realized, it will be more than a loss only to Alberta's capital city. It will be a national disgrace and a betrayal of trust by Edmontonians who have previously voted to keep the airport operating for at least another half century.

However, Mayor Mandel's destructive and arrogant Mandelian politics are determined to kill Canada's oldest licensed municipal airport. Originally known as Blatchford Field, and later as Edmonton Municipal Airport, the airfield has served Edmonton, northern Alberta and the rest of Canada for nearly 90 years. City Hall has now ignored the request by 90,000 citizens to put the matter on a plebiscite, a further insult to the taxpayers of our city and residents of northern Alberta who are served by the airport.

It is a historic treasure in the heart of the city and home to dozens of aviation-related businesses that employ hundreds of people. It is the airfield that earned Edmonton its moniker as “Gateway to the North, ” as appropriate a name today as it was decades ago.

On June 8, 2009 when the manipulative mayor and his nine cohorts on council voted 10 to 3 to close the airport, they voted to end aviation service and put anyone employed there out of work. In the laughable “debate” that council conducted when minds were already made up, Mandel and his minions gave reasons for closing the airport, but could never explain why it should be done. Some reasons given, if not all, were, in fact, downright misleading.

From early days of bush flying and through Second World War service in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, from a base for the United States Army Air Force to the good old days of Pacific Western Airlines air bus flights to Calgary, and for charter service, flying instruction, aircraft maintenance and medevac flights today, the airport has been at the heart of Edmonton's character.

Closure of runways and ending the life of an active and viable airport is simply not necessary. Despite claims by those who favour closure, the land is simply not needed for residential or industrial development. Nor does the airport need to be removed so that Edmonton can build higher office towers. Edmontonians did not ask council to close the airport. City Hall's call for development is only for increasing a tax base and for providing financial reward for developers. Ending operations at the City Centre Airport will end life-saving medevac service, passenger flights to northern Canada, and the visit of historic aircraft that fly into the airport on special occasions.

Located at the airport is the Alberta Aviation Museum in Canada's last surviving double-wide, double-long hangar of wartime BCATP stations. It is one of the three largest aviation museums in Canada. Its prominence, and location next to an active runway, have made it possible for warbirds such as the Lancaster from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum to land beside the museum and taxi right up to it in 2009. That aircraft is one of only two Lancasters left in the world that still fly, of 7,377 built for the war effort, and Edmonton was privileged to have it in the city.

In July 2009, during the 100th anniversary year of powered flight in Canada, city councillors led by the mayor voted to start closure in laughable discussion that they tried to pass off as a debate when they were already decided on the issue. In July 2010, when the Corsair navy fighter aircraft from Vintage Wings of Canada visited the museum during Aviation Heritage Week and paid tribute to the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Navy, city councillors were counting the days until they could start putting an end to activity like that.

Edmontonians have come out by the thousands to show their interest in aviation by visiting such aircraft as the “Lanc,” and to see other special interest aircraft from Canada, England and the United States that have made Edmonton a stop on their tours. At the annual Airfest display, dozens of aircraft land, then park beside the museum as visitors come out in droves in appreciation of the place of aviation in their city. In early October 2010, a DC-3 Dakota aircraft, now some 70 years old, flew into Edmonton last week for display, and like other historic aircraft drew visitors to the airport who cherish our aviation history.

Edmonton is in an enviable position with both an international airport and a viable municipal airport. The two facilities provide opportunity to provide the essential services needed for freight and passengers, maintaining Alberta's capital city as Gateway to the North. Another moniker the city uses is “City of Champions,” but that one doesn't apply to the mayor and the councillors who would insult fellow citizens, destroy the airport, terminate its service, remove it from the fabric of the city, and put an end to a rich aviation heritage.

City council has tried to silence the voice of citizens who want to keep the airport open. But we can make our voice heard by voting for candidates for mayor and council who support the airport. We can refuse to vote for candidates who would close the airport and not re-elect those who have betrayed us.

[Indanao]

Having been born and raised in Edmonton, it occurs to me that the City has a bit of a reputation for crooked Mayors.
Remember Bill Hawrelak? He got caught with, " his fingers in the till " twice - and still got reelected. Eventually died
in Office: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hawrelak

[5x5]

Great news for ECCA and any other airport that is under pressure from local interests!!!

The Supreme Court of Canada just released their rulings on the court cases related to the airport in Quebec that the local municipality wanted to close. They said that airports come under Federal jurisdiction. Here's one paragraph out of the full judgement....

61] To be sure, this result limits the ability of provincial and municipal authorities to unilaterally address the challenges that aviation poses to agricultural land use regulation. However, as Binnie and LeBel JJ. noted in Canadian Western Bank, at para. 54, Parliament’s exclusive power to decide the location of aircraft landing facilities is vital to the viability of aviation in Canada. As stated in Lafarge Canada: “The transportation needs of the country cannot be allowed to be hobbled by local interests. Nothing would be more futile than a ship denied the space to land or collect its cargo and condemned like the Flying Dutchman to forever travel the seas” (para. 64)

Bolding is mine but if it's "Parliament's exclusive power" then Edmonton's City Council (or any other government body) has no right whatsoever to close an airport.

[Flybabe]

Link?

[RatherBeFlying]

The landowner can do whatever he wants with an airport, including converting the runways to parking for industrial equipment as did Beamish Construction to King City.

The only restraint on the city is the leases it has made with the various businesses on the airport.

[2R]

So does that mean that the Hospitals will have less patients from the north ?
Could be a backdoor way of implementing a racist policy of keeping some people from accessing the Edmonton hospital system.
Close the airport and save having to build more bedspace for northern residents as access is reduced.

[5x5]

Link?

Your wish is my command.

http://scc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/2010/2 ... scc39.html

[BGH]

New crap to throw on the dung heap - from the Provincial Enquirer today:

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Scandal ... story.html

[gianthammer]

[RatherBeFlying]

There's a difference between shooting yourself in the foot and cutting yourself off at the knees.

[aviator2010]

So the International it is

[seniorpumpkin]

http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/ ... sults.aspx

Does this mean what I think it means?

[aviator2010]

http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/ ... sults.aspx

Does this mean what I think it means?

U bet mass transit out to the international, lower property taxes unrestricted growth, the ability to stop feeding calgary more point to point service and everything else that goes along with it

[MUSKEG]

Oh how the song will change when the commoners get hit with all the taxes required to make the International more accessible. This election has succeeded in finally putting an end to the Calgary vs Edmonton debate. Every horse has an ass and from this election comes the realization that the nose is pointed south.

[aviator2010]

huh

[wrenches and radios]

I got laid off from my job at city center. Got 3 years left on the first term of my mortgage so hugh penilties to sell. guess I leave my wife and kids, move to the arctic, and send my pay checks to them.

[aviator2010]

or you could apply too one of the 100 jobs posted in the south in the last week on this job board (or you could apply at the international for the increaced activity their)

[looproll]

I thought the Supreme Court just ruled that airports are a federal matter which municipal governments cannot interfere with.

[SierraPoppa]

I thought the Supreme Court just ruled that airports are a federal matter which municipal governments cannot interfere with.

If the municipal government is the owner of the airport there is nothing the federal government can do about it.

That ruling was all about provincial and local governments trying to close down privately owned airports. Not about airport owners deciding to close their own airport.

[seniorpumpkin]

Ok aviator2010, I for one would like to know what your stake is in the city center airport closing. Your position is clearly that of someone who is invested in the international, but just to allow us to understand where some of these crazy perspectives come from, lets show some transparency.
I am a pilot living in BC who was hoping for a job based out of the city center airport. I have experienced the commute to the international, and I sympathize with the medevac patients who now face a longer transit time to get to a hospital.