Although the Thompson Chamber of Commerce, at its meeting held on Feb. 24 to discuss which resolutions to bring to the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce annual general meeting, dropped the idea of lobbying airships as freight vehicles in the North, the town of Flin Flon's Chamber of Commerce has taken up the cause.
The Thompson chamber had lobbied for airships by resolution for the last few years before deciding not to this year. At the time, Keith MacDonald, president of the Thompson Chamber of Commerce, said chamber members had "more pressing" resolutions to bring forth and that it may have been a few years before the airships resolution would gain more strength.
But apparently that was not the case at the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce annual general meeting, which MacDonald attended from April 30 to May 2 in Russell, where the resolution to lobby governments to support the airships idea was put forward by the Flin Flon Chamber of Commerce.
"Flin Flon partnered with us last year, and they supported us when we brought the motion then. They've actually supported us for the last three or four years I believe, and the reason why is because it's a resolution that is provincial in scope," MacDonald explains. "We can't necessarily say it's for Thompson alone, but we can say we want it for the North if the airships landed in Flin Flon or Gillam or anywhere else in the North that'd be the sole purpose behind it - at least we'd have them coming to the North."
Now, MacDonald is hoping the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce will take the airships resolution, combine it with the resolution about creating an all-winter road to Gillam, and lobby the Province of Manitoba to have a feasibility study done sometime this year.
"Freight is a big issue up here in the North. There are a lot of benefits for airships," MacDonald goes on to say. "They carry more, they're also more fuel efficient and if we're trying to be environmentally aware and do our part, that's another bonusThey can also get to more places at any time of the year - they only need a small landing area, they don't need a whole airport, so that'd be something that's a bonus too."
The University of Manitoba has been a big backer of the airships idea, with Dr. Barry Prentice working with the Northern Manitoban communities that would like to see it happen. MacDonald says Gary Wylie, with Isopolar Airships, has also been a big supporter of the movement.
"We just couldn't let anything of this nature die," MacDonald stresses. "We just needed to make sure one of the other chambers was putting it forward. I supported the Flin Flon bid at the chamber meeting, and I also instructed them along the way."
Airships are enormous cigar-shaped balloons, up to six storeys high, that are said to be a cheap, reliable way to get people and cargo to different places. They work by being lighter than air and steered and propelled through the air, staying aloft by filling a large cavity with lighter than air gas like helium or hydrogen. The mode of transportation got a lot of bad press, however, during the last century, due to a series of high-profile accidents that transpired. These included the May 6, 1937 airborne burning of the hydrogen-filled Hindenburg at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey.Mayor Tim Johnston has in the past represented Thompson's interest in airships, including attending a leaders panel a few years ago at the Airships to the Arctic IV symposium presented by the University of Manitoba and Transport Institute.
Curtis Ross, CEO of the Thompson Regional Airport Authority, says he'd rather see effort and resources be put towards improving the already existing Thompson Regional Airport and airports throughout the North.
