DRYDEN — Three Northwest airports lost their sole scheduled passenger carrier in 2024. This week at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in Ottawa, they talked to Ontario government officials about finding a way to restore service and keep the airports aloft.
Dryden delegates to the 2025 AMO conference spoke to Ministry of Transportation (MTO) officials about the matter, Mayor Jack Harrison said after returning from the Aug. 17-20 conference.
“We were talking about our concerns about our lack of air passenger service since Dryden, Kenora and Fort Frances lost our air passenger service in May of 2024,” he told Newswatch in a phone interview.
“We’re working with the feds in order to get a feasibility study up and running to see what the feasibility of reinstating passenger service is. But in the meantime, we’ve lost any federal funding for infrastructure for the airport repairs.”
Harrison said Dryden delegates spoke with the MTO about getting sufficient funding for the airport until Dryden gets the return of scheduled passenger service and the federal funding that goes along with it.
The MTO has an interest as one of the Dryden airport’s main users, along with other provincial ministries, he said.
Fort Frances Mayor Andrew Hallikas identified the airport as a top concern going into the conference. On Friday he told Newswatch he liked what he heard from Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria.
“It was a good delegation,” Hallikas said.
“The ministry can’t make promises on the spot, but we certainly got their attention and they’re going to look into some of our suggestions.”
The Fort Frances, Dryden and Kenora facilities lost funding through the federal Airports Capital Assistance Program when they lost their scheduled passenger carrier service last year, Hallikas explained.
“So we were suggesting to the MTO that it would be really beneficial if they put in place some sort of ‘PCAP’ — provincial capital airport funding.”
The idea is “not out of the blue,” Hallikas said, as some other provinces also provide direct funding to airports.
“We don’t think, obviously, it’s necessary for all of the major airports to have this,” he added. “But for airports in our situation … it would be great if the provincial government could step up.”
He said there was “some interest in that suggestion” and he’s waiting to see what the province does next.
In the meantime, Hallikas said, the province has commissioned Vancouver-based InterVISTAS Consulting to conduct an air passenger feasibility study for the three centres.
Harrison said Team Dryden also talked to the MTO about funding through the Connecting Links program for “a couple of major bridges” within Dryden city limits.
“We’re looking at the (Wabigoon) River bridge and also the overpass that goes over the railway,” he said. “Both need repair.”
Connecting Links is an MTO funding program to help municipalities pay for fixing critical roads and bridges.
