Government of Canada makes important investments at Nunavut airports

IQALUIT, NU, Oct. 18, 2022 /CNW/ - Northern communities across Canada depend on well-maintained airports to keep them connected. These airports also support essential air services including community resupply, air ambulance, search and rescue, and forest fire response.

The Minister of Transport, the Honourable Omar Alghabra, today announced that the Government of Canada is making important safety investments at local and regional airports in Nunavut.

Through Transport Canada's Airports Capital Assistance Program, four airports in Nunavut will receive over $5.4 million for safety-related projects and equipment that will help maintain safe airport operations for passengers, crews and airport workers. The airports receiving funding are:

Cambridge Bay Airport

• $420,000 to purchase a 4x4 plow truck

Clyde River Airport

• $210,000 to purchase a loader-mounted snow blower

Coral Harbour Airport

• $420,000 to purchase a 4x4 plow truck

Whale Cove Airport

• $4.4 million to rehabilitate airside granular surfaces

This funding is in addition to the more than $1.9 million announced under the Program in May 2021, to support safety-related projects at the Coral Harbour, Kimmirut, Pangnirtung and Rankin Inlet airports.

Quote

"With Canada being such a large country, our airports are critical to keeping communities connected, especially in our Northern communities and Territories. This investment in local and regional airports in Nunavut will ensure that residents across Nunavut continue to be able to see their loved ones and have access to essential air services. Our Government made a commitment to Canadians to build safer, healthier, and stronger communities as we rebuild from the pandemic, and through investments like these, that's exactly what we're doing." 

The Honourable Omar Alghabra
Minister of Transport

Quick Facts

• As announced in the Fall Economic Statement 2020, the Airports Capital Assistance Program received a one-time funding top-up of $186 million over two years.
• The Fall Economic Statement 2020 also announced the temporary expansion of eligibility for the Airports Capital Assistance Program to allow National Airports System airports with less than one million annual passengers in 2019 to apply for funding under the Program in 2021-2022 and 2022-2023.
• Since the Airports Capital Assistance Program started in 1995, the Government of Canada has invested over $1.2 billion for 1,215 projects at 199 local, regional and National Airports System airports across the country. Funded projects include runway and taxiway repairs/rehabilitation, lighting enhancements, purchasing snow clearing equipment and firefighting vehicles as well as installing wildlife control fencing.

• Airports Capital Assistance Program

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SOURCE Transport Canada