Envision Edmonton's city centre airport campaign may have hit some turbulence, but a handful of municipalities want to help the project land safely.
One of those municipalities is the Town of Bonnyville, which will donate a dollar for every resident to try to keep Edmonton City Centre Airport open to commuter and emergency service traffic.
The airport campaign took a nosedive after City Council disallowed a petition calling for a plebiscite, which would have been the third plebiscite to occur regarding the airport. The City barred 14,000 names from the petition for various reasons, bringing the number of signatures below the threshold needed to force a plebiscite.
Envision Edmonton organizers disagree with the council's decision and are launching a legal challenge.
But the faster route to pressing the issue forward for airport proponents is the October city election. Envision Edmonton has decided to promote candidates who come out in favour of the airport.
At a previous Town of Bonnyville council meeting, council motioned to make the donation toward advertising to promote a positive outcome in the plebiscite. Since the plebiscite will not occur, council decided last week to provide the money for Envision Edmonton's ongoing campaign. The money will go to support the legal challenge as well as pro-airport candidates.
The total amount of the donation is $6,400.
Coun. Ray Prevost said if the airport is shut down the Town would loose its money and gain nothing. “I have mixed feelings about it. I'm somewhat reluctant, but I'd certainly like to see that airport stay open.”
“I don't care which way you cut it, if you close city centre airport it's going to add time to medevac,” said Mayor Ernie Isley in response to Premier Ed Stelmach's statement that he would not allow the airport to close until he was assured it would not affect medevac service.
Council also supports Commuter Air Access Network of Alberta, which is trying to keep the downtown airport open for commuter access.
