The Thompson Regional Airport Authority held the 2010 edition of its annual general meeting on Aug. 26, with the TRAA board of directors casting one eye firmly on the future.
"The building you're looking at," TRAA president and chief executive officer Curtis Ross told those gathered, "is in essence the vision for the new terminal building." The building in question was Riverlodge Place, a recently-opened 6,500-square-foot conference centre overlooking the Burntwood River at the former heliport hangar.
Though firm plans and dates have not yet been finalized for the new terminal building - the TRAA hopes to begin construction in 2012 - the building was nonetheless a hot topic on the lips of those in attendance. "The TRAA is always busy working towards the eventual and potential goal of constructing a new air terminal building," wrote Ross in his report to the board.
"When you come to Thompson, the airport is one of the first things you're going to see," added board treasurer and vice-president of finance Vince Shumka. "If what you see is a decrepit, rundown building, that's not a very good first impression."
Shumka also emphasized that just because the TRAA might go through spells of little ongoing construction that does not mean they don't have anything in the works. "When we do collect the money from airport improvement fees, it does go towards capital projects and infrastructure," he said. "Sometimes it takes two or three years to save up for a project."
Runway rehabilitation was the project being saved up for most recently, although construction was done on the main runway by J.P. Thorne Ltd., with Ross noting that Thorne's portion of the project - phase one - was completed ahead of schedule. A new tender will be issued for the final phase.
"The TRAA is focused firstly on ensuring that the airside infrastructure is meeting the demands and loads being placed on our airport. The significance of rebuilding the 35-year-old pavement structure is the priority and must be completed prior to the construction of a new air terminal building," Ross wrote. "The reality is that our runway service is 35 years old and repairs can no longer be deferred."
With the Aug. 11 announcement by the federal government of $8.7 million for the second phase of the runway project, the TRAA - which will contribute 15% of the money for that project - is now able to turn its attention to fundraising for the new terminal building through partnerships with the public and private sectors, as well as working with the Local Government District of Mystery Lake to find suitable land and address zoning issues.
"The news of major funding to help the TRAA rehabilitate this critical part of our infrastructure is an important achievement," said TRAA board chair Tom O'Brien. O'Brien's term as chair ended at this meeting - Raj Thethy was appointed as the new chair, with Shumka taking Thethy's former position as vice-chair.
"The importance of the announcement of $8.67 million for this runway project will have an exponential economic, safety, and life cycle impact on the Thompson Airport," Ross wrote.
The $8.7 million was given to Thompson Airport through the Airports Capital Assistance Program (ACAP), which marked a departure from the absolute lack of funding Thompson received from ACAP in 2009 - an issue hardly unique to the one airport. "With exception of only a few Arctic airports, every other small and regional airport across Canada did not receive any ACAP funding either," Ross wrote. There was also a lack of any sort of funding from the provincial government, which Ross attributed to a focus on other infrastructure projects that took precedence over airports.
On the financial side, the TRAA's performance in 2010 can best be summed up with "steady as she goes." "The year from strictly a movement and passenger perspective was very good overall for the TRAA in that we stayed well above the national trends that saw most airports experience a decline," Ross wrote. Aside from government funding and grants, the sole source of revenue for the TRAA is the $15-per-passenger fee levied on flights. That fee stayed unchanged in 2009, but Ross suggested that its level may need to be reviewed in the future. Revenue collected through that fee rose slightly in 2009, from $1,128,760 to $1,137,036 - or a gain of 0.73 per cent.
Ross noted that the funding received for the Thompson Airport could be partially attributed to his role as chair of the Regional Community Airports Coalition of Canada (RCACC). "If you want to get results from Ottawa, you have to be in Ottawa," he said, adding that while in Ottawa on behalf of the RCACC, he had met with many MPs and Transport Canada officials.
"I don't think a lot of people really understand how important the airport is to Thompson and to Northern Manitoba," Shumka said.
