The Fort Simpson Airport will be receiving $2.7 million from the Government of Canada for the rehabilitation of the airfield electrical systems, NWT Member of Parliament Michael McLeod announced in a news release Wednesday morning.
This news comes as hundreds of residents of Fort Simpson have been displaced by flooding from the breakup of the Liard River.
Through the Transport Canada’s Airports Capital Assistance Program (ACAP) the federal government will be investing a total of $19.8 million in Northern airports with $15 million going to the overlays of airside surfaces at the Fort Smith Airport and $2 million for improving airfield drainage at the Yellowknife Airport.
“The airports in Fort Simpson, Fort Smith, and Yellowknife are all critically important for residents and businesses in their communities,” McLeod stated in the release.
“These investments will help ensure continued safe and reliable airport operations for residents of the Northwest Territories, many of whom depend on their local airports not only for personal travel and community resupply, but also for access to routine and emergency medical care in larger centres.”
Diane Archie, minister of Infrastructure, stated that the NWT’s 27 community airports are critical to the economic and social well-being of residents.
“The role airports play in the day-to-day lives of Northerners has been made more apparent through COVID and the recent flooding in the NWT,” she stated.
Since ACAP started in 1995, the federal government has invested $1.1 billion in 1,088 projects at 199 airports across the country.
