Alberta
$30 million investment to help develop national transportation logistics hub at Red Deer Regional Airport
News release from the Province of Alberta
Investing in the Red Deer Regional Airport
Budget 2023 is investing $30 million to expand the Red Deer Regional Airport, clearing the way to develop a national transportation logistics hub in central Alberta.
As Alberta’s government continues its focus on growing and diversifying the economy, an investment in the Red Deer Regional Airport will provide new opportunities in central Alberta. Improvements will support the development of a shipping and receiving hub in central Alberta and attract new investment opportunities to create high-paying jobs.
“Alberta’s airports play a critical role in strengthening and diversifying our economy by expanding access to markets, as we don’t have direct access to tidewater. This investment will allow additional aviation cargo and logistics services, which will not only provide new travel options and get more products to market but also create jobs and help attract new investment to central Alberta.”
The expansion will support the growth of rural communities in central Alberta while enhancing the safety of local residents and airport users by creating an additional emergency access to the airport and the Hamlet of Springbrook. This new funding builds on a $7.5-million grant from Alberta’s government in 2022-23 for the airport to repair and upgrade its runway.
“This is definitely exciting news. The Red Deer Regional Airport is situated along one of the busiest transportation hubs in the province. This expansion will provide huge economic benefits to central Alberta.”
“The city and county recognize the Red Deer Regional Airport as an economic catalyst. The city, as a joint appointer for the airport with the county, is working together to be a key logistics hub based on our prime location. Thank you to the Province of Alberta for their investments in central Alberta.”
“We are glad this government has recognized the unique opportunity the airport and central Alberta can play in expanding our economic impact through diversification. We already have a tenant looking to expand their business as a result of this positive development. By building the road north, we now have the opportunity to access the additional 220 acres, which we hope will bring in cargo, aircraft repair and other airline-related services. This expansion project will also result in a new passenger terminal allowing for 737 aircraft passenger service.”
“Air Spray has partnered with the Red Deer airport for over 50 years. We are the largest business at the airport, employing over 150 highly trained aviation professionals. Air Spray is delighted with the news of this major investment at the Red Deer airport. This investment allows Air Spray to move forward with our expansion plans to add additional hangar space at the airport.”
Funding through Budget 2023 will support north end road construction and civil works, including water sanitation, stormwater and fibre optics, to Township Road 374 to support new business opportunities for the north end land development. The development of the north end road will also create additional emergency access to the airport and will increase safety for the community as it continues to grow.
“As the MLA for Red Deer-North and as a resident of Red Deer, I know this expansion will be a welcomed addition for the community. This expansion will be an asset to the transportation corridor, as it will attract new passenger and cargo services, improve tourism and create jobs. I am happy to see further investments that will support our booming community.”
“Centrally located on the dynamic Calgary-Edmonton corridor, the Red Deer Regional Airport enjoys great competitive advantages. This transformative $30-million capital investment for the airport will leverage those advantages, increasing the economic capacity of the airport, thereby increasing economic activity and prosperity in Red Deer and central Alberta.”
Budget 2023 secures Alberta’s future by transforming the health-care system to meet people’s needs, supporting Albertans with the high cost of living, keeping our communities safe and driving the economy with more jobs, quality education and continued diversification.
Quick facts
- Alberta’s aviation and aerospace industries employ more than 18,000 people (2022, Statistics Canada).
- These industries contributed $1.5 billion to the province’s GDP in 2021.
- The province is home to three low-cost Alberta-based carriers – Lynx Air, Swoop and Flair Airlines.
- Alberta’s government created the Strategic Aviation Advisory Council in 2020 to provide expert advice to government on how aviation and aerospace can increase economic development opportunities, expand markets and create jobs in the province.
From the Fraser Institute
By Matthew Lau
To understand Ottawa’s negative impact on Alberta’s economy and living standards, juxtapose two recent pieces of data.
First, in July the Trudeau government made three separate “economic development” spending announcements in Alberta, totalling more than $80 million and affecting 37 different projects related to the “green economy,” clean technology and agriculture. And second, as noted in a new essay by Fraser Institute senior fellow Kenneth Green, inflation-adjusted business investment (excluding residential structures) in Canada’s extraction sector (mining, quarrying, oil and gas) fell 51.2 per cent from 2014 to 2022.
The productivity gains that raise living standards and improve economic conditions rely on business investment. But business investment in Canada has declined over the past decade and total economic growth per person (inflation-adjusted) from Q3-2015 through to Q1-2024 has been less than 1 per cent versus robust growth of nearly 16 per cent in the United States over the same period.
For Canada’s extraction sector, as Green documents, federal policies—new fuel regulations, extended review processes on major infrastructure projects, an effective ban on oil shipments on British Columbia’s northern coast, a hard greenhouse gas emissions cap targeting oil and gas, and other regulatory initiatives—are largely to blame for the massive decline in investment.
Meanwhile, as Ottawa impedes private investment, its latest bundle of economic development announcements underscores its strategy to have government take the lead in allocating economic resources, whether for infrastructure and public institutions or for corporate welfare to private companies.
Consider these federally-subsidized projects.
A gas cloud imaging company received $4.1 million from taxpayers to expand marketing, operations and product development. The Battery Metals Association of Canada received $850,000 to “support growth of the battery metals sector in Western Canada by enhancing collaboration and education stakeholders.” A food manufacturer in Lethbridge received $5.2 million to increase production of plant-based protein products. Ermineskin Cree Nation received nearly $400,000 for a feasibility study for a new solar farm. The Town of Coronation received almost $900,000 to renovate and retrofit two buildings into a business incubator. The Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada received $400,000 for marketing and other support to help boost clean technology product exports. And so on.
When the Trudeau government announced all this corporate welfare and spending, it naturally claimed it create economic growth and good jobs. But corporate welfare doesn’t create growth and good jobs, it only directs resources (including labour) to subsidized sectors and businesses and away from sectors and businesses that must be more heavily taxed to support the subsidies. The effect of government initiatives that reduce private investment and replace it with government spending is a net economic loss.
As 20th-century business and economics journalist Henry Hazlitt put it, the case for government directing investment (instead of the private sector) relies on politicians and bureaucrats—who did not earn the money and to whom the money does not belong—investing that money wisely and with almost perfect foresight. Of course, that’s preposterous.
Alas, this replacement of private-sector investment with public spending is happening not only in Alberta but across Canada today due to the Trudeau government’s fiscal policies. Lower productivity and lower living standards, the data show, are the unhappy results.
Author:
From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
By Ray McGinnis
Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert are on trial for conspiracy to commit murder and firearms charges in relation to the Coutts Blockade into mid-February 2022. In opening her case before a Lethbridge, AB, jury on July 11, Olienick’s lawyer, Marilyn Burns stated “This is a political, criminal trial that is un Canadian.” She told the jury, “You will be shocked, and at the very least, disappointed with how Canada’s own RCMP conducted themselves during and after the Coutts protest,” as she summarized officers’ testimony during presentation of the Crown’s case. Burns also contended that “the conduct of Alberta’s provincial government and Canada’s federal government are entwined with the RCMP.” The arrests of the Coutts Four on the night of February 13 and noon hour of February 14, were key events in a decision by the Clerk of the Privy Council, Janice Charette, and the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, Jody Thomas, to advise Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to invoke the Emergencies Act. Chief Justice Paul Rouleau, in submitting his Public Order Emergency Commission Report to Parliament on February 17, 2023, also cited events at the Coutts Blockade as key to his conclusion that the government was justified in invoking the Emergencies Act.
Justice David Labrenz cautioned attorney Burns regarding her language, after Crown prosecutor Stephen Johnson objected to some of the language in the opening statement of Olienick’s counsel. Futher discussion about the appropriateness of attorney Burns’ statement to the jury is behind a publication ban, as discussions occurred without the jury present.
Justice Labrenz told the jury on July 12, “I would remind you that the presumption of innocence means that both the accused are cloaked with that presumption, unless the Crown proves beyond a reasonable doubt the essential elements of the charge(s).” He further clarified what should result if the jurors were uncertain about which narrative to believe: the account by the Crown, or the account from the accused lawyers. Labrenz stated that such ambivalence must lead to an acquittal; As such a degree of uncertainty regarding which case to trust in does not meet the “beyond a reasonable doubt” threshold for a conviction.”
On July 15, 2024, a Lethbridge jury heard evidence from a former employer of Olienicks’ named Brian Lambert. He stated that he had tasked Olienick run his sandstone quarry and mining business. He was a business partner with Olienick. In that capacity, Olienick made use of what Lambert referred to as “little firecrackers,” to quarry the sandstone and reduce it in size. Reducing the size of the stone renders it manageable to get refined and repurposed so it could be sold to buyers of stone for other uses (building construction, patio stones, etc.) Lambert explained that the “firecrackers” were “explosive devices” packaged within tubing and pipes that could also be used for plumbing. He detailed how “You make them out of ordinary plumbing pipe and use some kind of propellant like shotgun powder…” Lambert explained that the length of the pipe “…depended on how big a hole or how large a piece of stone you were going to crack. The one I saw was about six inches long … maybe an inch in diameter.”
One of Olienick’s charges is “unlawful possession of an explosive device for a dangerous purpose.” The principal evidence offered up by RCMP to the Crown is what the officers depicted as “pipe bombs” which they obtained at the residence of Anthony Olienick in Claresholm, Alberta, about a two-hour drive from Coutts. Officers entered his home after he was arrested the night of February 13, 2022. Lambert’s testimony offers a plausible common use for the “firecrackers” the RCMP referred to as “pipe bombs.” Lambert added, these “firecrackers” have a firecracker fuse, and in the world of “explosive” they are “no big deal.”
Fellow accused, Chris Carbert, is does not face the additional charge of unlawful possession of explosives for a dangerous purpose. This is the first full week of the case for the defence. The trial began on June 6 when the Crown began presenting its case.
Ray McGinnis is a Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy who recently attended several days of testimony at the Coutts Two trial.
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