Iqaluit airport: grandiose plan, few answers

In a month or so, the Government of Nunavut will sit down with a group of private companies to sign a deal for the biggest single thing that public money has ever bought in Nunavut: a new airport for Iqaluit.

Naturally, no Nunavut MLA has asked any of the obvious questions. As usual, the assembly has failed to provide even rudimentary public scrutiny of a government project.

The airport work is supposed to be finished by 2017. But the GN won’t stop paying for it until about 30 years after that date. And we can’t tell you how much, in total, the GN will end up paying by the end of the 30-year period.

At the same time, we can’t tell you how much the GN will pay each year, an annual financial burden that will be passed on to at least five or six future governments that have yet to be elected.

All that’s still secret. Oh yes, we have the GN’s rough estimate of $250 million to $300 million. But without context and explanation, that claim should be regarded with the utmost skepticism.

We can’t even show you sketches that illustrate what the new airport structures will look like. That too is secret.

Neither can we tell you why the GN now wants to build the new Iqaluit airport on such a grand scale. That’s because only some of the GN’s publicly stated reasons make any sense.

Until three or four years ago, the Iqaluit airport master plan called for paving estimated at around $10 million and a new terminal building estimated at around $40 million, illustrated with the usual show-off slideshow sketches and drawings.

But between then and about now, these modest plans morphed into a $300-million behemoth. Why? Well, one reason is likely wrapped up with status and bragging rights.

In its business plan for 2013 to 2016, the Department of Economic Development and Transportation cites this as one of their goals for the Iqaluit airport:

“To maintain designation as a National Airport System facility and international alternate use airport.”

The National Airport System is an exclusive club. Only 26 Canadian airports have been allowed in. One way of gaining membership is when your airport handles at least 200,000 passengers a year. Iqaluit’s small airport fails that test, since it handles only about 120,000 passengers a year. Iqaluit, however, is a capital city. And because all provincial and territorial capitals gain automatic entry to the national airport system, Iqaluit gets a free pass.

But if Iqaluit already gets a free pass into the National Airport System, why does it need a $300-million renovation job? You can cross that reason off your list right now.

The GN’s other stated reasons include a variety of claims. A few of them make sense. Others appear to be unsupported by any evidence. Some are simply devoid of meaning.

For example:

• the GN says “there is insufficient air transportation linking the communities of Nunavut to each other as the existing transportation network is no longer reasonable for the growing communities of Nunavut.”

What does “insufficient air transportation” mean? The current air transport system in Nunavut is shaped by two factors. One is passenger travel contracts paid for by government, especially medical travel, and freight contracts for retailers, construction firms and other private businesses. The other factor is Nunavut’s tiny high-cost market and what the territory’s struggling airlines must do to serve it without going bankrupt.

How can a $300 million airport change those realities? The GN offers no answer to that question.

Here’s another example:

• the GN says “Several major exploration projects on Baffin Island are expected to develop into mines in the near future, such as the Mary River iron ore deposits, and Chidliak diamond project.”

The near future? Really? The developers of the Chidliak diamond project near Iqaluit, Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. and De Beers, have dug up some interesting samples. But they have yet to prove their isolated site contains a viable resource and they have yet to produce a credible feasibility study. It’s foolish for the GN to predict this uncertain project will become a producing mine any time soon.

As for the Mary River project, Baffinland’s current scaled-back scheme would cut its production by about 80 per cent from the company’s original plan. Given the current weakness of global steel prices, this project must also be deemed uncertain until proven otherwise.

And then there are claims that amount to pure nonsense, such as this:

• “The project will enhance and expand the existing air transportation network to improve the social and economic future of the communities of Nunavut.”

Can you find any actual meaning in that sentence? We can’t.

Or this one:

• “The current airport also needs to be modernized with state-of the art equipment to make it more contemporary and comfortable.”

What does “contemporary” mean? A $300 million fashion statement?

The GN cites unsafe congestion on the airport tarmac as a justification for its massive upgrading scheme. That’s a valid reason. Another justification is the need to make the airport conform to regulations set by agencies like Transport Canada and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority.

That too is valid. But the GN has never explained why the earlier version of their airport master plan could not achieve those goals.

There’s only one question we can answer with certainty. That question has to do with why the GN chose to use a private-public partnership, or “P3.”

Governments turn to P3s for the same reason poor people turn to Money Mart. It’s their only option. And after the GN managed in 2012 to pry a $77.3 million handout from P3 Canada, a federal agency, construction of this huge project became inevitable. JB