Sask. spends $67.8M on northern airports, roads

Upgrades to Pelican Narrows airport will help medi-vac planes land and take off with patients. (Ovide Michel/Submitted)

PRINCE ALBERT -

By the end of 2021, the Ministry of Highways says it will spend $67.8 million to complete improvements to airports and provincial highways in north Saskatchewan.

"Airports represent an important lifeline for our northern residents to the rest of Saskatchewan and Canada," Minister of Highways Fred Bradshaw said in a media release.

The ministry operates 16 airports in northern Saskatchewan.

The largest rehabilitation project is the $14 million Fond-du-Lac airport upgrade to improve the runway, taxiway and apron and the installation of a new airfield lighting system.

The airport was the site of a fatal plane crash in 2017 which left 19-year-old Arson Fern Jr. dead and prompted safety recommendations from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada the following year.

Work is expected to be completed this fall.

Also included is fencing and permanent lighting at the Pelican Narrows airport. The mayor of the northern village, Ovide Michel, says right now people have to manually set up lights on the airstrip in order for planes to take off and land.

Upgrading to permanent lighting will help save valuable time for people being air-lifted out of the north for medical reasons.

“We’ve been lobbying for the past eight years for this, and I’m glad it’s coming to the point where the government has stepped up and upgraded the airport because of ongoing medical emergencies,” said Michel.

He’d also like to see the province pave the gravel runway.

The airport serves the Village of Pelican Narrows with about 1,500 residents and Pelican Narrows Cree Nation with a population of around 4,000.

Other projects include:

• Meadow Lake Airport: Rehabilitation of the airfield electrical system, including replacing underground wiring, pull pits, transformers and installing or replacing LED runway lights;
• Cumberland House Airport: Apron and taxiway grading and base strengthening;
• Highway 106: Spot improvements between the junction of Highway 135 and Creighton;
• Highway 135: Gravel road upgrade approximately 14 km south of Pelican Narrows;
• Highway 155: Spot improvements at approximately five locations on Highway 155 north of Buffalo Narrows and three locations on Highway 908; and
• Highway 905: Gravel road upgrade from Cigar Lake to McClean Lake Access Road.

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