Wabush airport firefighting issues stem from federal cuts, say Labrador officials
CBC
Officials in Labrador West are calling on the federal government to provide more support for firefighting services at the Wabush airport.
MHA Jordan Brown says Transport Canada's decision to halt the service in 2020 shows how "out of touch" the federal government is with northern communities.
"It's just another … cut to this region," said Brown.
"Both federal and provincial Liberal governments in this region just seem to feel that to save money, they'll cut in northern areas where they think no one will notice."
On Friday, Labrador City announced the town's volunteer firefighters would no longer respond to the airport in its twin community.
Labrador City Mayor Belinda Adams says the decision follows an emergency landing at the airport in January.
Even though nobody was injured, the airport's emergency response plan was criticized as outdated.
Safety, Adams said, is the town's main priority, but that's not always guaranteed when volunteer firefighters are forced to do a job they aren't trained for.
"It's time to make a stop and take a hard stand on that," said Adams.
Brown, once a volunteer firefighter himself, agrees.
"You don't see volunteer fire departments at St. John's International Airport or Toronto International Airport. They're paid professionals. They're paid and their profession is crash rescue," said Brown.
"It would be ridiculous to think that you have to download this burden onto volunteer firefighters. And if the government thinks that that's a reasonable approach, well, they really need to rethink their thinking."
The airport has been without dedicated rescue and firefighting service since August 2020, when Transport Canada halted the service citing insufficient passenger numbers.
That decision was based on "poor" data, says Brown, as the department used only scheduled commercial flights to measure the passenger volume.
This story is a collaboration between the Investigative Journalism Foundation and CBC Saskatchewan.
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