Nearly five years after the City of Castlegar submitted a plan to make the West Kootenay Regional Airport more reliable in bad weather, the federal government still hasn’t given its blessing.
Mayor Maria McFaddin said in an interview today that the city recently sent a letter to the Ministry of Transportation requesting a timeline for approval. Transport Canada is still reviewing the city’s submission for a lower-ceiling landing approach, involving something called required navigation performance, which lets planes fly specific paths using GPS.
It’s expected that could finally solve the frequent winter cancellations in Castlegar, which lies in a narrow valley prone to fog. Between Jan. 13 and Feb. 2, 11 of 19 scheduled flights were cancelled, with passenger loads of 30 to 35 per cent. Between Feb. 3 and 17, six of 13 scheduled flights were cancelled. Passenger loads are now 39 to 40 per cent.
“What we’ve heard from Transport Canada is that everything is looked at in a priority basis and it sounds like we’re competing with bigger airports,” McFaddin said. “That means they have not made our airport a high priority. So we are trying to advocate for that to change.”
McFaddin said they haven’t just been waiting idly in the interim and there has been “a lot” of back-and-forth with Transport Canada and local MPs. Complicating matters, she said, is that some standards and approvals have changed, forcing the city to revise and resubmit its proposal. She hopes looming cuts within the federal government don’t cause further delays.
McFaddin said the long wait has been frustrating given the time, energy, and money the city has spent on the project, dating back to 2017. A report funded by Castlegar and other local governments cost $260,000. The city subsequently borrowed $1 million from the Columbia Basin Trust for additional work. McFaddin said there are ongoing costs to ensure their application is kept up to date.
“It is extremely frustrating when you know you have a solution for a region that really gets locked in the wintertime and just to be sitting and waiting,” she said. “We’re trying to do everything we can to advocate that they move quicker.”
While federal authorities have not rejected the proposal, and the city expects it will eventually be approved, McFaddin said that’s not much consolation. She said required navigation performance is used all over the world, so it is not new technology.
If and when they do receive the go-ahead, McFaddin said they will have to be prepared to implement the plan, which will take more time and money. The flight path will have to go through trials before Air Canada is ready to use it.
The city is already preparing for higher passenger loads. The airport apron has been expanded and this week council approved borrowing $5 million to expand the terminal building as well.
As mayor, McFaddin said she is asked about the airport “once every couple of weeks,” including by her political counterparts from around the region. She said she doesn’t get the sense people are upset with the city, but rather share their frustration with how slow the process is.
Is there any reason to believe 2026 will be year Castlegar finally puts to rest the nickname of Cancelgar?
“Hopefully, we’ll get approval,” McFaddin said. “That would be lovely this year, and then we can start the next process. That means we should, sooner than later, have better reliability.”
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