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Adam Huras
Telegraph-Journal

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If skilled workers are going to leave Miramichi for the Alberta oilpatch, why not help them get there, says the chairman of the city's airport commission.

That suggestion is something the commission and the local economic development board believe will not drain the local economy of its workers. Instead it would keep them cashing paycheques at home, despite offering easier access out of the province.

"Hopefully we can keep the people in the Miramichi and keep the tax base in the Miramichi," says chairman Ray Stinson. "They are flying out of Fredericton, Moncton or Bathurst anyway, and we think there's the opportunity to fly out of here."

The mayors and councils of Miramichi and Charlo will get a chance to voice their opinion of the proposal today when it is discussed at a meeting with airport officials.

To gauge interest in the scheme, the commission has already placed an ad in a local paper listing as possible destinations the Alberta oilsands centres of Fort McMurray and Fort McKay.

"Possibly this (service) could be once a week, twice a week," says Stinson. "We are seriously looking at it because there is a lot of tradespeople in the Miramichi, the Acadian Peninsula and the north who are unemployed and are going out West."

"Once we sit down and develop it, we will then start negotiations with carriers."

Enterprise Miramichi executive director Brian Donovan says he isn't worried that the availability of westward flights in Miramichi will take away from the local workforce.

"The perspective is, if they are going out there anyway and they are flying from the Miramichi airport instead of another ,that's a positive," he says. "If it's people who decide they want to work out West, but still live here, and the paycheques come home, that's a positive."

However, Donovan also sees a potential negative that needs consideration.

"If it is to the detriment of existing companies here that can't find employees "¦ that's the only negative in it right now," he says.

Still, Donovan doesn't think that is unlikely, because there are labour shortages everywhere.

"There are labour shortages all over Canada right now in skilled trades," he says. "So, whether it's Saint John or Alberta that is drawing skilled tradespeople away from Miramichi or Campbellton or Bathurst, the situation is the same everywhere."

"If they want to go, they will."

The air service proposal is part of a five-year strategic business plan for the airport that began with the hiring of a consultant earlier this year. The airport commission has indicated the expansion of air cargo service, a potential charter flight to Saint John and an expanded relationship with the Charlo airport are all under consideration in the plan.

Representatives of an air transport company have already asked for Miramichi city council to support their firm's bid to bring an air cargo business to the city's airport.