Four municipalities in southwestern Alberta have formed a new partnership to help expand the aviation and aerospace industry in the region. Cardston County, the Municipal District of Pincher Creek, the Municipal District of Willow Creek and the Town of Fort Macleod have joined forces to develop their airports as a regional aviation and aerospace cluster. “A thriving airport automatically brings business to the community,” said Claresholm Mayor Brad Schlossberger. The Alberta Southwest Alliance, a regional economic development alliance, is helping improve investment attractions and regional resilience among the four municipalities. “A number of rural airports have these assets and they’re just sitting there and often under utilized so often times they either (just) break even or lose money,” said Sean Miles, who is the alliance’s director of investment development. “Rural communities are resource thin, so the ability to actually dedicate a lot of specific resources to things like airports are challenging,” he said, adding that anytime collaboration and leveraging assets as a group can make “a significant difference.” Miles says that’s what this partnership aims to do with the already existing airports. The Pincher Creek Airport has 6,600 feet of runway and approach lighting that already host an airtanker base, air ambulance and helicopter operations. Claresholm Industrial Airport is currently home a growing flight training school, while Fort Macleod has hangar lots ready to sell. The Cardston Airport, meanwhile, is minutes from the U.S. border with a new pilot’s lounge and room to grow. “When you start talking about those on a collaborative scale you can start sharing the opportunities and find out where the best fit is for them instead of everybody competing against each other for the one opportunity,” Miles said. In February, a Regional Aerospace Cluster Environmental Scan completed a study of the region. It found the airport system to be “asset-rich but capacity-poor,” with substantial runways, land and uncongested airspace across the region. It also found “no single rural municipality can afford the specialized aviation planning expertise that turns an airport into an economic asset.” The study pointed to flight training and workforce development, aircraft maintenance and specialized services, emergency and wildfire response and applied drone work as areas that can benefit the region’s airports. “Anytime you can create economies of scale is significant and also from a marketing perspective and promotional perspective,” Miles said. Over the coming months, the municipalities will create a master plan of how best to improve and serve the aviation industry in southwest Alberta. “We’ve always been known to work together in southwest Alberta and supporting other municipalities with their airport revitalization is important to everyone,” Schlossberger said.
