Released on May 10, 2019
Once again, municipal airports in Saskatchewan will be making some upgrades and improvements through the Community Airport Partnership (CAP) program. The $700,000 in cost-shared grants will provide important investment dollars to nine community airports this year.
“Our communities and regionally-owned airports provide important transportation infrastructure that support critical services like air ambulance, law enforcement and firefighting,” Highways and Infrastructure Minister Lori Carr said. “By partnering with municipalities, we’re ensuring a network of airports is in place to enhance economic development in sectors like tourism, oil and gas, agriculture and mining.”
CAP is designed to help offset the capital costs of rehabilitation and infrastructure improvements with grants being cost-shared up to a maximum amount of $275,000.
“Over the past five years Yorkton has invested more than $269,000 in matching infrastructure improvement funds for our airport, which help to maintain and improve it,” Yorkton Mayor Bob Maloney said. “Yorkton Regional Airport is an important piece of our local and provincial transportation infrastructure and provides economic benefits throughout the region.”
“We are very pleased to obtain this CAP grant for improvements and upgrades to our airport facility,” Moosomin Mayor Larry Tomlinson. “Any investment into our local transportation infrastructure is always welcome.”
Airports benefiting from the CAP program this year include:
- Birch Hills - $17,500 – replace and repair runway and apron lights;
- Estevan - $86,750 – runway drainage improvements;
- Humboldt - $36,500 – runway repairs and replacement of the Nondirectional Radio Beacon system with a GPS approach;
- Kindersley - $4,000 – runway repairs;
- Kipling - $6,650 - installation of a RNAV (GNSS) approach system;
- Maple Creek - $27,000 – runway repairs;
- Moosomin - $275,000 – new runway construction Phase 1;
- Swift Current - $55,000 – asphalt maintenance and runway, taxiway, and apron painting; and
- Yorkton - $257,760 – runway rehabilitation Phase 1.
“As we like to say - a mile of highway gets you a mile down the road; a mile of runway gets you the world,” Saskatchewan Aviation Council President Janet Keim said. “Our communities realize the tremendous value of their airports in both social and economic growth benefits and this program assists in important capital reinvestment opportunities.”
Since 2007, more than $7 million has been invested in community airports and, coupled with 50-50 matching community contributions, the program has generated about $14 million in airport improvements. A total of 36 different communities have benefited from the program since its inception.
For more information about the program, please visit https://www.saskatchewan.ca/residents/transportation/airports/community-airport-partnership-cap-program.
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For more information, contact:
Steve Shaheen
Highways and Infrastructure
Regina
Phone: 306-933-5641
Email: steve.shaheen@gov.sk.ca