Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of returning Fort Smith Regional Airport runway to former specifications.
Mr. Speaker, the petition contains 550 signatures, including 127 electronic signatures and 344 written signatures of Northwest Territories residents, and Mr. Speaker, the petitioners request that the Government of the Northwest Territories return the main airport runway at Fort Smith airport to its former width for reasons of public safety and economic growth.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I have a short presentation. Further to my Member's statement earlier today, this petition was started in January of 2021, and it contains a total of 550 signatures. There are 352 handwritten signatures, along with 198 electronic signatures, and 79 signatures came from people residing outside of the NWT, though I will add that most of the outside signatures came from people who used to reside in Fort Smith or were born and raised in Fort Smith.
Mr. Speaker, I must admit that today, as I present this petition, I am feeling a sense of validation in my ongoing efforts to restore the Fort Smith airport runway to its former specifications. As I said in my Member's statement, I am no longer the lone voice vocalizing support to restore the Fort Smith airport runway. I am now joined with the support of 550 people who agree with my efforts. During our caucus retreat last year, Mr. Speaker, a meeting was held on August 31st. I just want to recap that meeting. This email was sent that very night after the meeting by Brian Harrold, who is the owner of Northwestern Air Lease.
It says: "Dear Frieda, just a quick recap on our meeting today. Thank you for inviting Minister Simpson and for listening to our concerns. As I had mentioned at the meeting, the narrowing of the airport has had several impacts on the town and Northwestern Air Lease. When Northwestern Air Lease had decided to start a flight training school, we had predicted some of our mitigations for a safe operation at a 200-foot-wide runway. This allows the students significantly more room for error on takeoffs and landings. As we had discussed, by narrowing the runway, the number and type of large aircraft that could be used in the event of an emergency evacuation has been severely limited.
"I understand that the Boeing 737 manufacturer states that the Boeing 737 aircraft can operate from a narrower runway. However, both WestJet and Air Canada have procedures that will not allow their aircraft to land on any runway narrower than 149 feet. This is why Fort Smith is no longer usable as an alternate airport due to bad weather. This means that the only 737 aircraft that can take part in an evacuation would be the Canadian North 373-200. This will limit the aircraft that would take part in an evacuation and would leave the evacuation to the military and Canadian north for the large aircraft, and the rest would have to be with ATR's Dash 7s and Dash 8s. This could mean a large number of aircraft trying to depart or arrive in poor conditions." This was an excerpt from the whole email that was sent by Brian Harrold.
Mr. Speaker, there is one aspect of this petition that was particularly concerning for me and for several other interested people who considered to sign this petition. I was told by a number of Government of the Northwest Territories employees that their supervisors had discouraged them or were trying to prevent people from signing this petition. Upon hearing this, I reached out to the Minister responsible for Human Resources and asked her if this was, in fact, true. She told me that there was no such direction given. This indicates a serious lack of clarity from the Department of Human Resources about the Government of the Northwest Territories signing this petition. This petition is not going against any government policy. This petition is about the safety and economic wellbeing of the community of Fort Smith.
My duty to present this petition to the Government of the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly on behalf of the amazing community of Fort Smith is an honour. I appreciate all the support I got from the community and will continue to work extremely hard to find solutions to this unnecessary situation with the airport. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
