By Derek Cornet

Airport Upgrades

Minister views upgrades at La Ronge Airport

Feb 15, 2019 | 10:20 AM

While Indigenous Services Minister Seamus O’Regan was in La Ronge Thursday, he made time to view recent upgrades to the local airport.

“We went up into the flight service station and I was able to show him our most recent project, which was funded by the [federal] government through the Airport Capital Assistance Program (ACAP),” Manager Jim Burr said. “[We] upgraded our airfield lighting controller systems from an old push button system that was well pass its serviceable years to a state-of-the-art touchscreen control system.”

The project, which cost $295,000, was completed in the fall of 2018 and included new regulators which were installed in the outfield electrical centre. Burr noted airport staff are happy with the new products and the results achieved by it. O’Regan was also able to view a sand shed constructed in 2017 at the cost of an additional $85,000.

During the tour, Burr was also able to talk to the minister about the increasing funding to ACAP. When the program was created in 1995, the fund had a $32 million budget, he said, which was last increased in 2000 to $38 million. In the past 19 years, Burr added the federal government increased the number of eligible airports to the program. He would like to see funding increased soon.

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“I was able to present that case to him and ask he take that to the appropriate people,” he said. “I feel like he took it seriously and responded to it well, and I hope he’ll do something with it.”

O’Regan toured the airport on behalf of Minister of Transportation Marc Garneau.

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno